Tag: Kunal Shah

CRED Success Story: How It Made Credit Card Payments Effective and Rewarding

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The concept of credit is not new. People have been opting for credit since time immemorial. Credit is crucial when our capital cannot support certain investments, and credit cards have certainly made them easy to avail. However, paying the credit card bills is a priority and equally difficult to manage. This is why CRED decided to come forth with the unique idea of a platform that will help Indians pay their credit card bills on time and also offer them instant offers and rewards for the same.

CRED is a fintech company headquartered in Bengaluru, which allows its users to make credit card payments through its app and get exclusive offers and other benefits online. Furthermore, CRED has also introduced house rent payment options, Rent Pay; flexible credit lines, CRED Cash; and CRED Mint, with which the lenders can lend their idle money to borrowers who exhibit decent credit scores at interests of around 9% per annum.

Learn more about the CRED startup story, its founder, history, tagline, logo, business model, revenue model, funding, competitors, and more.

CRED Company Details

Startup Name	CRED
Headquarters	Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Sector	Financial Services
Founder	Kunal Shah
Founded	2018
Website	cred.club

About CRED
CRED – Startup Story
CRED – Founder and Team
CRED – Tagline and Logo
CRED – Business Model
CRED – Revenue Model
CRED – Funding and Investors
CRED – Shareholding
CRED – Acquisitions
CRED – Growth and Revenue
CRED – Financials
CRED – Products and Features
CRED – Partnerships
CRED – Competitors

About CRED

CRED allows credit card users to pay their credit card bills through its platform and extends rewards for each transaction. The fintech platform also lets users make their house rent payments and avail all the benefits of the short-term credit lines that the app now offers. The CRED headquarters is in Bangalore.

The company takes the utmost care in protecting the data and user information. Hence, the app is completely safe and secure. Kunal Shah is the founder of CRED. He founded the company in 2018 and often describes CRED as a TrustTech company, not a Fintech. This is because his initial motivation to start CRED came from solving trust issues in Indian society, which, according to him, is the key to economic prosperity. The CRED founder, Kunal Shah, is a well-known face in the startup ecosystem who has already funded numerous startups.

CRED – Startup Story

The Cred story was very simple. The goal was to create a platform where life could be made better and systematic. Kunal Shah wanted to offer more privileges and benefits to people with good credit scores. Therefore, creating a flywheel effect for more people was important to improve the scores.

Everybody, from the startups to the government, has focused on the masses. The founder of the company wanted to focus specifically on the people, the responsible citizens who pay taxes on time. He felt that nobody had solved their problems earlier.

‘If you look at history, nobody has been rewarded for paying back on time. We want to fix that.’

Therefore, CRED was founded primarily to solve the problems of the taxpayers and reward them with attractive rewards in return.

CRED – Founder and Team

Kunal Shah

Kunal Shah is the founder and CEO of CRED. He is an Indian entrepreneur who is credited for launching new ventures for a second time. Kunal was a Philosophy graduate from Wilson College and later went on to pursue an MBA from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, but he dropped the course midway to chase his dreams as an entrepreneur.

Kunal started his entrepreneurial journey with PaisaBack, a website for cashback, coupons, and other offers for users, along with Sandeep Tandon. However, he eventually shut down its operations in order to found FreeCharge, which the duo founded in 2010.

FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015, but the company still continued as an independent entity led by Shah. CRED was founded in 2018 and successfully turned unicorn on April 6, 2021. FreeCharge, on the other hand, was acquired by Axis Bank in July 2017. Here’s looking at the FreeCharge business model and how it makes money through it.

Kunal Shah was born in Mumbai in 1983. His hobbies include playing chess and poker. He loves munching on chips and guacamole. He loves the ideology of Socrates and the plays of G.B. Shaw.

CRED – Tagline and Logo

CRED’s tagline is ‘Suraksha Aur Bharosa Dono.’

CRED Logo

CRED – Business Model

The business model of CRED consists of four parts :

CRED app – The CRED app is a neat-looking, beautifully designed app that users can visit if they want to go through the offers that are available after they pay their credit card bills. They can easily sign up on the app and view all the offers that they can avail of.

Businesses that provide offers on the app – The users of CRED can also find a wide range of offers from numerous businesses. For this, CRED brings businesses on board and collaborates with them. Along with benefitting CRED and its customers, who can avail of the exclusive offers provided by the businesses, it is also a win-win situation for the companies. This is because they also hugely benefit from the visibility they get.

Users who pay their credit card bills – CRED also serves as a smooth and rewarding platform for the users who use it to pay their credit card bills. In comparison to banking or other apps, end-users can choose CRED as an app to pay their credit card bills and get numerous offers and benefits. On the other hand, the users who like the app also share CRED with their family and friends.

CRED Mint – CRED disclosed its new feature, CRED Mint, on August 20, 2021, which is designed as a peer-to-peer lending platform that will help CRED users lend their idle money to creditworthy members. It is a rather transparent process that only allows the trustworthy CRED members boasting of a minimal credit score of 750 or higher to be the borrowers. Furthermore, the lenders can also withdraw their money whenever they want, with the interest that they have accumulated for the period.

CRED – Revenue Model

There are 2 prominent ways via which CRED makes money,

Listing products and offers – CRED, as we know, lists an array of products and offers that benefit its users from a range of businesses. These businesses, in turn, pay CRED a fee for their visibility. Every time a user avails of the offers, CRED generates an income through it.

Using the financial data of the users, CRED accumulates the financial data from the users who use the platform for paying their bills and more. Along with providing CRED with the opportunity to introduce more offers to their users using these data, CRED also has other banks and financial institutions that pay them a fee for accessing these data. These companies, banks, and financial institutions would eventually approach the potential customers with their own set of products aligned to their tastes.

CRED has revealed that it does not charge any fees for the credit card payment options that it offers via its app. The company instead earns its revenues from the ancillary services it provides with the help of its technology and distribution platform.

CRED – Funding and Investors

Here’s a look at the CRED funding rounds:

Date	Transaction Name	Money Raised	Lead Investors
June 9, 2025		$72 million	Lathe Investment, RTP Global, Sofina Ventures, QED Innovation Labs
June 9, 2022	Series F	$80 million	GIC, Sofina, Alpha Wave and DF International
April 8, 2022	Venture Round	$200 million	GIC
October 19, 2021	Series E	$251 million	Tiger GLobal and Falcon Edge
April 6, 2021	Series D	$215 million	Coatue, Falcon Edge Capital and others
January 1, 2021	Post-IPO Secondary Round	–	–
November 30, 2020	Series C	$81 million	DST Global
July 26, 2019	Series B	$120 million	Gemini Investments, Ribbit Capital and Sequoia Capital India
April 16, 2019	Series A	$24 million	–
January 1, 2019	Seed Round	–	Rainmatter Technology
November 6, 2018	Seed Round	$30 million	Sequoia Capital India

CRED – Shareholding

Here is CRED’s shareholding pattern as of March 2025, sourced from Tracxn:

CRED Shareholders	Percentage
Kunal Shah	10.8%
QED Innovation Labs	9.6%
Sequoia Capital	9.3%
Ribbit Capital	8.1%
Tiger Global Management	5.8%
Gemini Investment Management	4.8%
DST Global	4.5%
Alpha Wave Global	4.7%
Coatue	4.0%
Hillhouse Capital Group	2.0%
RTP Global	2.5%
General Catalyst	1.6%
Sofina	1.5%
Greenoaks	1.5%
GIC	0.9%
Prime Venture Partners	0.8%
Dragoneer Investment Group	0.8%
Insight Luxembourg	0.5%
Axiom Asia	0.2%
Marshall Wace	0.2%
Kalaari Capital	0.2%
Dream Duo	0.2%
Rise Global Capital	0.2%
Matrix Partners India	0.2%
SciFi	0.1%
Whiteboard Capital	< 0.1%
Rainmatter	< 0.1%
Greyhound Capital Management	< 0.1%
Bharat Innovation Fund	< 0.1%
Reddy Futures	< 0.1%
Venture Highway	< 0.1%
Future Shape	< 0.1%
Rajaram Family Trust	< 0.1%
Zarringhalam Ventures	< 0.1%
Mission Holdings	< 0.1%
Meridian Fund	< 0.1%
Cupola Venture Opportunites l	< 0.1%
Alteria Capital	< 0.1%
Valiant Capital Partners	–
ReDefine Capital Partners	–
Credence Partners	–
Ganesh Ventures	–
eWTP Capital	–
The Chatterjee Family Revocable Trust	–
AME Cloud Ventures	–
CRED	0.8%
Anxa Holding	0.6%
MVision	0.6%
GRACE software	0.3%
SFSPVI	0.2%
Stak3 International	0.2%
Spenny	< 0.1%
Strategic Asset Management	< 0.1%
Ra Hospitality	< 0.1%
Kuber Technologes	–
SF Roofdeck Capital	–
Angel	0.2%
Other People	1.3%
ESOP Pool	20.4%
Total	100.0%

CRED – Acquisitions

CRED has acquired five companies to date: Hipbar, Happay, smallcase, and Spenny. The recent acquisition is of Spenny on June 23, 2023.

Company Acquired	Date	Deal Value
Kuvera	February 6, 2024	–
Spenny	June 23, 2023	–
smallcase	August 2, 2022	$400 million
Happay	December 1, 2021	$180 million
HipBar	October 21, 2021	–

CRED – Growth and Revenue

CRED has shown steady growth throughout the years. Being a startup that was founded in 2018, it successfully joined the unicorn club on April 6, 2021, closing its Series D round where the company had mopped up $215 million. CRED controls “22% of all credit card payments in India every month,” said Kunal Shah in his statement released in April 2021. CRED’s valuation reached $6.5 billion in 2022 after a $200 million funding round.

Kunal Shah further took to his LinkedIn profile on July 10, 2021, and shared highlights of the milestones reached by CRED in June:

Kunal Shah shared financial progress of CRED on LinkedIn

CRED Financials

CRED saw its operating revenue grow by 71% to INR 2,397 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,400 crore the previous year.

Including other income, CRED’s total revenue increased by 66%, reaching INR 2,473 crore in FY24, compared to INR 1,484 crore in FY23.

However, despite the rise in revenue, the company’s net loss expanded by 22%, reaching INR 1,644 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,347 crore the previous year. CRED noted that its operating loss decreased by 41%, dropping to INR 609 crore from INR 1,024 crore in FY23. The company’s total operating expenditure, including one-time costs, amounted to INR 3,082 crore in FY24.

Whereas, CRED’s operating revenue has increased from INR 393.5 crore in FY22 to INR 1,400.6 crore in FY23. In terms of profit and loss, company losses increased from INR 1,279.5 crore in FY22 to INR 1,347 crore in FY23.

CRED Revenue Breakdown

Particulars	FY23	FY22
Revenue from Operations	INR 1,400.3 crore	INR 394.4 crore
Other Income	INR 84.4 crore	INR 28.2 crore
Total Revenue	INR 1,484.6 crore	INR 422.6 crore

Revenue more than tripled in FY23, led by a sharp increase in operational revenue from INR 394.4 crore to INR 1,400.3 crore.

CRED Profit/Loss

Losses remained high and consistent, increasing slightly from INR 1,279.6 crore in FY22 to INR 1,347.5 crore in FY23.

CRED Expenses Breakdown

The company’s total expenses rose from INR 1,702 crore in FY22 to INR 2,832 crore in FY23.

Particulars	FY23	FY22
Employee Benefit Expense	INR 788.9 crore	INR 307.6 crore
Finance Costs	INR 3.5 crore	INR 2.4 crore
Amortization & Depreciation	INR 59.4 crore	INR 14.3 crore
Other Expenses	INR 1,980.2 crore	INR 1,377.7 crore
Total Expenses	INR 2,832 crore	INR 1,702.1 crore

EBITDA

With a huge increase in EBITDA margin from -299.24% in FY22 to -86.42% in FY23, the company showed remarkable financial improvement. The ROCE increased from -42.66% in FY22 to -31.95% in FY23, demonstrating good improvement. These adjustments imply that the company’s financial performance is on the upswing.

EBITDA FY22-FY23	FY22	FY23
EBITDA Margin	-299.24%	-86.42%
Expense/₹ of Op Revenue	₹4.33	₹2.02
Roce	-42.66%	-31.95%

Quick Summary: Comparative Insights (FY23 vs FY22)

Revenue Growth: Revenue surged 251%, highlighting strong traction in core services.
Expense Surge: Expenses rose by 66%, indicating significant operational scale-up.
Losses Sustained: Losses stayed high despite revenue growth due to steep cost increases.

CRED – Products and Features

CRED Mint

CRED introduced CRED Mint on August 20, 2021, which will serve as a peer-to-peer lending feature that can be used by the customers of CRED. CRED Mint was launched by CRED in collaboration with RBI-approved P2P Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), Liquiloans.

CRED Cash

CRED launched CRED Cash, a flexible credit line, in 2020. CRED Cash considers its members pre-approved for an active credit line of up to INR 5 lakhs without any documents, phone calls, forms, or physical visits.

Rent Pay

CRED launched Rent Pay in April 2020, which enables users to pay their monthly rent via credit cards.

CRED Store

CRED launched CRED Store, an eCommerce platform, which is deemed as a haven for customers with over 500 premium brands across a wide range of categories to shop from.

CRED, which was famous as a credit card bill manager, is now up with some more offerings, including mobile, DTH, and FASTtag recharge options. As per the latest reports dated April 1, 2022, the Kunal Shah-led company has launched its utility bill payments segment, with the help of which the users can now pay their utility bills, including electricity, water bills, and municipal tax, via the CRED app.

Tap to Pay Feature

With the Tap to Pay feature Android users with NFC capabilities can pay without physical cards or wallets by tapping their smartphones on merchant terminals. CRED launched this feature in February 2022.

BidBlast

BidBlast is a thrilling bidding game that CRED members can only play, and it was launched in December 2022. This will give the CRED members the excitement of bidding without using actual money by using CRED coins.

CRED Flash

CRED launched CRED flash in February 2023; with this launch, customers can make payments using BNPL products within the app and across more than 500 partner merchants.

CRED Escapes

The launch of CRED Escapes in March 2023 will provide a painstakingly designed platform with premium privileges, exclusive events, and lodging. This is consistent with CRED’s cutting-edge strategy, which offers members benefits like spa credits, hotel upgrades, and theme park admission.

P2P Payments

CRED launched a P2P payment feature in April 2023. With this feature, customers of CRED will be able to send money to other users via UPI IDs or contact numbers using P2P payment.

RuPay Credit card-based payments

In August 2023, CRED, in collaboration with NPCI in August 2023, launched Rupay credit card- based payment, and now customers can make UPI payments using their credit cards. This partnership benefits banks and merchants by increasing spending and credit sector inclusion.

Fourth Edition of AWP program

CRED launched its fourth version of the AWP (Accelerated Wealth Program), giving staff members the opportunity to purchase more ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) with a quicker vesting period.

According to a March 15, 2024, report, this program gives employees the option to choose to have up to 50% of their pay come from special grant ESOPs. With this initiative, CRED hopes to encourage employee ownership and alignment with the company’s long-term growth trajectory while also rewarding and incentivizing staff members.

CRED – Competitors

CRED’s top competitors are Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Freecharge, and MobiKwik.

Paytm is the top competitor of CRED. It is a fintech app and payments platform that is headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, and was founded in 2010.
PhonePe is another notable competitor of CRED. It is also a digital payment and financial services platform headquartered in Bangalore, India, and was founded in 2015. This app has the largest market share of 50% as of December 2022.
Being a UPI platform that is a mass-volume player, Google Pay is another competitor of CRED. This digital payments platform was developed by the Search engine giant Google itself.
Amazon Pay is also a rival of CRED, which is now all set to provide diverse payment options. The online payments processing app was launched by Amazon and founded in 2007.
MobiKwik is yet another fintech company, that supports digital payment options and is a rival of CRED at the same time. It is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, India, and was founded in 2009.
Freecharge is also a company that CRED competes with, after the launch of its mobile bills and utility bill payment services. Originally founded by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, Freecharge is now owned by Axis Bank.

FAQs

What is CRED company?

CRED allows credit card users to pay their bills through its platform and extends rewards for each transaction. The fintech platform also lets the users make their house rent payments, and also avail all the benefits of the short-term credit lines that the app now offers.

Who is CRED founder and CRED CEO?

Kunal Shah is the founder and CEO of CRED.

CRED started in which year?

Kunal Shah founded CRED in 2018.

Is CRED a fintech company?

Yes, CRED is a fintech company founded by Kunal Shah and headquartered in Bangalore.

Is CRED an Indian company?

Yes, CRED is an Indian fintech company.

How does CRED make money?

CRED earns money from listing fees that businesses pay to display their products and offers on its app – CRED collects your financial data as you use the app and continues to pay your bills to offer you better offers in the future. To gain access to this data, banks and credit card companies pay CRED.

Is CRED profitable?

CRED saw its operating revenue grow by 71% to INR 2,397 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,400 crore the previous year. Despite the rise in revenue, the company’s net loss expanded by 22%, reaching INR 1,644 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,347 crore the previous year.

How much is CRED revenue?

CRED saw its operating revenue grow by 71% to INR 2,397 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,400 crore the previous year.

What is CRED tagline?

The tagline of CRED company is Suraksha Aur Bharosa Dono.

Which is CRED parent company?

CRED doesn’t have a parent company. It is an independent fintech platform.

June 10, 2025

CRED Business Model | How Does CRED Make Money?
Not many things out there can match the convenience that comes with a credit card. After all, what can be better than spending money- money that you don’t have to hold or carry in your wallet? Moreover, we hover around, get 6-7 weeks to pay back the same, and then also earn rewards, discounts, or cashback on it. Well, these instruments are designed in such a way that they keep you hooked.

Kudos to the noble banks and fintech players, but then – every boon comes with a T&C. Founded in April 2018 by Kunal Shah, CRED has emerged as a pivotal fintech platform that redefines the way credit card payments, rewards, and management are perceived across the nation.

This platform stands out by prioritizing the credibility of its users, employing credit scores as a criterion to curate a community of trustworthy individuals, thereby simplifying the credit card bill payment process and rewarding timely transactions with exclusive offers and discounts.

With a robust user base of almost 16 million and a valuation soaring to $6.4 billion as of June 2022, CRED’s trajectory reflects its groundbreaking approach to imbibing a gated ecosystem that benefits both individual lenders and financial institutions by ensuring a circle of high trust.

CRED’s business model, which pivoted the startup to the much-coveted unicorn status within just over two years of its inception, has been simple yet phenomenal. The USP revolves around offering a meticulous balance between user convenience and enticing rewards. The platform allows users to effortlessly manage their credit card bills, track expenses, and avail themselves of P2P lending at competitive rates, and by doing so – the Fintech major not only enhances financial health but also ingrains a culture of financial responsibility.

The platform’s focus on amplifying user value through exceptional rewards for responsible financial behavior, coupled with its strategic partnerships for exclusive deals, sets a precedence in the CC payments space, accentuating the importance of credibility and trust in the digital era.

In this article, we will be exploring the CRED business model and understanding how CRED makes money and what is its revenue model.

What is CRED?
Understanding the CRED Business Model – How Does CRED work?
CRED Revenue Model – How Does CRED Make Money?
Decoding the CRED Revenue Streams
CRED’s Value Proposition to Users
Challenges and Opportunities

What is CRED?

CRED, established in 2018 by Kunal Shah, is an innovative Indian fintech company that offers a reward-based credit card payment application. It started with the idea of targeting creditworthy individuals, specifically those with a credit score above 750, ensuring a community of high trust. However, with time – the credit card payment enabler has become more lenient when it comes to profiling individuals. The platform verifies new members by checking their credit scores with major credit bureaus such as CIBIL, Experian, and CRIF, requiring only their full name and a valid Indian mobile number for initial setup.

Cred Success Story – Founder, Business Model, Revenue Model, Competitors and More

Cred is a fintech company founded by Kunal Shah in 2018. Know more about Cred’s business model, revenue model, competitors, funding, and more.

StartupTalkyAnik Banerjee

Key Features and Services of CRED
- Credit Card Payment and Management: CRED simplifies the management of credit card expenses by providing a detailed analysis of spending patterns and efficiency, which aids users in better financial planning.
- CRED Protect: An AI-driven feature, CRED Protect, offers automated monitoring of credit card payments, sends due date reminders, and analyses spending habits to prevent fraudulent transactions.
- Rewards System: Upon paying their credit card bills through CRED, members gain access to exclusive rewards such as event tickets, experiences, gift cards, and premium upgrades from well-known brands like Diesel, Perfora, The Man Company, AJIO, Myntra, and others.
- Additional Financial Services: Besides basic card management, CRED has expanded its offerings to include house rent payments and short-term credit lines, providing more comprehensive financial solutions.
Value of Credit Card Transactions in India

User Impact and Market Presence
- User Base and Transactions: As of 2021, CRED has processed approximately 20% of all credit card bill payments in India, with a user base exceeding 5.9 million. The market share has continued to soar and grow.
- Investments and Financial Health: Supported by major investors like DST Global and Sequoia Capital, CRED has raised significant funds to fuel its growth, despite reporting substantial losses in 2020 due to aggressive marketing and advertising strategies.
- Strategic Acquisitions: In its pursuit to broaden its service spectrum, CRED has acquired startups like Happay, focusing on expense management, and HipBar, a liquor delivery service.
CRED continues to upscale its platform with features that promote good creditworthiness and financial discipline while rewarding creditworthy behavior, positioning itself as a cornerstone in India’s fintech scene.

List of All the Startups Acquired by Cred

Cred is a popular fintech company that provides rewards on credit card payments. Here’s a list of startups acquired by Kunal Shah’s, Cred.

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Understanding the CRED Business Model – How Does CRED work?

The business model of CRED revolves around creating a seamless experience for credit card users while partnering with businesses to provide exclusive rewards and incentives.

Three Pillars of the CRED Business Model
- CRED’s Customers: CRED’s customers are an essential component of its business model. While many people use payment apps or log in to their bank accounts to pay their credit card bills, CRED provides an attractive alternative by offering rewards and incentives. As more people use CRED to earn benefits, they share those benefits more widely, creating a network effect that strengthens CRED’s position in the market.
- CRED App: The CRED app is a key component of its business model. The app provides users with a user-friendly interface to see all the available offers for paying their credit card bills. As users continue to pay bills, they accumulate CRED coins, which they can redeem for rewards.
- Businesses That Provide Offers On The App: This is another important pillar of CRED’s business model. By bringing businesses on board and forming tie-ups with them, CRED provides small and large businesses alike with visibility, as buyers of all types use the app. This partnership is beneficial for businesses, as it allows them to increase their customer base and revenue while also providing users with more rewards and incentives to use the app.
CRED Revenue Model – How CRED Makes Money?

CRED Revenue Model – How CRED Makes Money?

The progressive business model of CRED leverages multiple revenue streams to create a robust ecosystem for creditworthy users. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how cred makes money:

Revenue from Business Listings
- Businesses pay to display their products and offers on the CRED app, generating significant listing fees for the platform.
Transaction-Based Earnings
- CRED charges a processing fee ranging from 1 to 1.5% on various transactions, which includes payments made through CRED pay.
- Additional revenue is earned through commissions on sales from advertisements optimized to encourage spending on the platform.
Interest and Commission from Financial Services
- The platform earns interest on loans provided through peer-to-peer lending and CRED Stash.
- A commission is also earned from transactions where users redeem CRED coins for offers from partnered brands.
Diverse Financial Offerings
- CRED’s array of services, such as CRED Pay, CRED Store, and CRED Escapes, ensures a broad base from which to draw revenue, ranging from payment processing fees to premium subscriptions.
Strategic Revenue Sharing
- A revenue share is obtained from partnered brands when users redeem points for rewards, integrating user engagement with profitability.
Thus, by focusing on a trust-based model, CRED not only secures a high-engagement user base but also creates a profitable framework through diverse revenue channels, making it a unique player in the fintech space.

Kunal Shah: Biography | Investments | CRED

Explore the captivating journey of Kunal Shah, a visionary in the world of fintech and entrepreneurship. Discover the secrets behind his success and the impact of his ventures on the future of finance.

StartupTalkyshifa ali

Decoding the CRED Revenue Streams

Let’s decode the revenue streams of the Shah-led company and understand how they make the revenue model of CRED a big-time success.

Revenue Composition and Growth

Primary Revenue Sources

CRED’s positioning revolves around multiple income streams that the neo-fintech player has figured out over the years. The majority of its income, nearly 90% – is derived from three key services: CRED Cash, Cred Max, and various insurance products. These services cater to the essential needs of the platform’s creditworthy user base, ensuring a steady influx of revenue.

Operational Revenue Enhancement

CRED saw its operating revenue grow by 71% to INR 2,397 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,400 crore the previous year.

Including other income, CRED’s total revenue increased by 66%, reaching INR 2,473 crore in FY24, compared to INR 1,484 crore in FY23.

However, despite the rise in revenue, the company’s net loss expanded by 22%, reaching INR 1,644 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,347 crore the previous year. CRED noted that its operating loss decreased by 41%, dropping to INR 609 crore from INR 1,024 crore in FY23.

For the fiscal year 2023, CRED reported a substantial increase in operational revenue, which grew by 3.5 times to reach INR 1,400.6 crore, up from INR 393.5 crore in the previous fiscal year. This growth highlights the effectiveness of CRED’s business strategies and its ability to monetize its services efficiently.

Particulars FY23 FY22

Revenue from Operations INR 1,400.3 crore INR 394.4 crore

Other Income INR 84.4 crore INR 28.2 crore

Total Revenue INR 1,484.6 crore INR 422.6 crore

CRED Financials 2024

Fee-Based Earnings

CRED capitalizes on transactional processes by charging a processing fee of approximately 1-1.5% on various transactions made through the platform. Additionally, the platform earns fees when users select offers from the ‘Discover’ section, further augmenting its revenue.

Interest Income and Financial Services

A significant portion of CRED’s revenue also comes from interest earned on peer-to-peer lending and CRED Stash, which provides an instant credit line to customers. This not only diversifies CRED’s revenue streams but also enhances user engagement by offering financial solutions within the app.

Strategic Financial Management

Despite a notable increase in revenue, CRED’s total operating expenditure, including one-time costs, amounted to INR 3,082 crore in FY24. Whereas, the company’s total expenditure rose by 66.4% to INR 2,832 crore in FY23 from INR 1,702 crore in FY22. The company has strategically reduced marketing and promotional expenses by 26.8% to INR 713 crore in FY23 from INR 976 crore in FY22, focusing more on direct integrations with banks to lessen payment processing charges. Through the continuous evolution of financial strategies and optimization of its service offerings, CRED is not just sustaining but also significantly strengthening its fiscal footprint in the competitive fintech arena.

CRED’s Value Proposition to Users

CRED’s value proposition uniquely intertwines convenience with rewards, offering a robust platform for creditworthy individuals to manage their finances effectively and enjoy exclusive benefits. Here’s how the CRED business stands out:

Kunal Shah Led CRED’s Value Proposition to Users
- Rewards for Financial Responsibility: Users earn rewards for timely credit card payments, which not only encourages punctual bill settlements but also aids in maintaining a healthy credit score.
- Suite of Financial Management Tools: With features like CRED Protect and Smart Statements, users can effortlessly monitor transactions, identify discrepancies in their credit reports, and initiate disputes to correct them, ensuring financial accuracy and security.
- Exclusive Access to Deals and Offers: Membership in CRED opens doors to curated deals and premium packages, allowing users to make significant savings on various purchases, enhancing the shopping experience, and providing real value for money.
- More Payment Options with CRED Max: Beyond credit card bills, CRED Max enables users to conveniently pay for rent, utilities, insurance premiums, and even subscriptions, simplifying the management of regular expenses.
- Better User Experience: CRED’s interface is designed for ease of use, making financial transactions not just simple but enjoyable. This focus on user experience helps retain members and fosters long-term loyalty.
- Security and Privacy: All personal data and transactions on CRED are securely encrypted, ensuring that users’ financial information remains private and protected.
- Appealing to Diverse User Needs: CRED appeals to a broad segment of financially savvy users, from those seeking to improve their credit scores to privacy-conscious consumers, all finding value in the platform’s offerings.
Understanding user needs through innovative features and maintaining a high standard of security has led CRED to successfully deliver a compelling value proposition that resonates with its target audience.

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Discover how CRED used storytelling, design, and influencer marketing to position itself as a premium fintech brand. A deep dive into CRED’s unique and successful marketing strategy.

StartupTalkyNicole Braganza

Challenges and Opportunities

Competitive Scenario and Differentiation Challenges
- Operating in a Crowded Market: CRED operates in a highly competitive digital finance market in India, where numerous loyalty programs vie for consumer attention. Establishing a distinct presence amidst this crowd poses a significant challenge for how CRED works.
- Effective Communication: The crucial task for CRED is to effectively communicate its unique value proposition. Many potential users are already familiar with traditional loyalty rewards programs, making it imperative for CRED to highlight its differences and benefits clearly and persuasively.
Competition and Market Positioning
- Facing Established Giants: CRED encounters intense competition from well-established players in the payments and financial services sector, including the likes of companies like Gpay and PhonePe. These competitors offer similar services, which necessitates CRED to continually innovate and offer superior value to retain and attract users.
- Differentiation Strategy: To stand out, CRED needs to keep differentiating itself through unique features, exceptional user experiences, and tailored services that resonate with its target audience of creditworthy individuals. It is even trying to do so by constantly gamifying the platform with animated contests, among others.
Future Prospects and Strategic Focus
- Sustainable Monetisation: While CRED has successfully attracted a large user base and built a strong brand, the ongoing challenge is to monetize this base in a sustainable manner. The focus must be on creating long-term value for users without compromising upon profitability.
- Playing Upon Brand Strength: CRED’s future prospects will heavily rely on its ability to make the most out of its brand and user trust to introduce new revenue-generating services and expand its market reach without compromising on user experience or data security.
- CRED plans to grow by tapping into digital payments, promoting financial literacy, and using technologies like AI to enhance user experience. It aims to expand through strategic partnerships and new market entry. Additionally, CRED is part of the RBI’s e-rupee pilot, exploring India’s digital currency future.
CRED needs to address these challenges and capitalize on opportunities. If done in the right way, the CC leader can continue to enhance its market position and achieve sustained growth in the long run.

A Glimpse on Kunal Shah’s Most Successful Investments

Kunal Shah is an active angel investor, serial entrepreneur, mentor, & advisor. Let’s have a look at how many of his funded startups succeeded exponentially.

StartupTalkyKinnary Nensee

End Note

Looking ahead, the road for CRED is both challenging and ripe with opportunities. As the platform continues to hover through the market dynamics and explores sustainable monetization strategies, its innovation-led approach will be crucial. The significance of the CRED business model lies not just in its current achievements but in its potential to shape future financial behaviors and market trends.

Consequently, the broader implications of the company’s success extend far beyond its immediate ecosystem, potentially influencing the global fintech dream and offering insights into the power of trust and reward in building a financially responsible society.

FAQs

What does CRED do?

CRED is an innovative Indian fintech company that offers a reward-based credit card payment application.

How does CRED make money?

CRED earns money from fees charged to businesses for the privilege of showcasing their products and offers on the CRED app. In addition, CRED earns money from transaction-based earnings, interest and commissions from financial services, and diverse financial offerings.

What is the CRED membership process?

To make the most out of CRED, you must have a credit score (CIBIL) of 750 or simply own a credit card. Upon joining, CRED will request permission to access and verify your credit score from credit bureaus such as Experian, CRIF, and CIBIL to assess what services it would extend to you, based on your rapport.

What issue does CRED aim to address?

CRED was born out of Kunal Shah’s challenges with managing multiple credit cards. The platform aims to tackle the issue of late payments on credit card bills, which can lead to accruing interest and damaging one’s CIBIL score. CRED provides a solution by helping users manage their credit card payments more efficiently.

How does the CRED app work?

CRED is a credit card bill payment app that rewards users with cashback and discounts for timely payments. Users link their credit cards, pay bills through the app, and earn perks from various brands. The app also offers credit score tracking for financial monitoring.

Is CRED a profitable company?

CRED saw its operating revenue grow by 71% to INR 2,397 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,400 crore the previous year. Despite the rise in revenue, the company’s net loss expanded by 22%, reaching INR 1,644 crore in FY24, up from INR 1,347 crore the previous year.

What is the CRED revenue model?

The revenue model of CRED involves revenue generation through diverse channels, including, Revenue from Business Listings and Financial Institutions, Transaction-Based Earnings, Interest and Commission from Financial Services, Diverse Financial Offerings, and Strategic Revenue Sharing.

What is CRED business model?

The business model of CRED is built on three pillars – its customers who pay credit card bills, the CRED app, and the businesses that provide offers on the app.

How CRED works?

CRED is accessible only to individuals with a credit score of 750 or higher (CIBIL). The app verifies your credit score by requesting access from credit bureaus such as Experian, CRIF, and CIBIL. If you meet the eligibility criteria, CRED allows you to link your existing credit cards to your account.
April 16, 2025

From Vision to Victory: Kunal Shah’s Pioneering Path in Fintech Revolution

“You’ll rarely meet successful people who are not exciting,” Kunal Shah.

Kunal Shah is a standout figure in India’s start-up world, particularly in the fintech sector. As a co-founder of Freecharge, he’s played a pivotal role in transforming digital payments in India, making transactions smoother and more accessible. His innovative vision has not only driven Freecharge to remarkable success but has also made a significant impact on the global fintech stage. Later, Shah launched CRED, a popular rewards platform that has captured the attention of many in India. Known for its user-friendly interface and fantastic rewards, CRED has quickly become a household name in the country’s startup realm. Shah’s journey, from a philosophy graduate to a billionaire entrepreneur, is a powerful example of how innovative ideas and dedication can lead to remarkable success. His story serves as a guiding light for aspiring entrepreneurs in India, showcasing the endless possibilities that come with curiosity and ambition.

Kunal Shah – Biography

Name	Kunal Shah
Born	May 20, 1983
Education	BA in Philosophy – Wilson College, Mumbai MBA – Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (dropout), Mumbai
Nationality	India
Position	Founder and CEO, CRED
Net worth	Rs. 15000 crore

Kunal Shah – Personal Life
Kunal Shah – Early Life
Kunal Shah – Career
Kunal Shah – Journey so Far
Kunal Shah – FreeCharge
Kunal Shah – CRED
Kunal Shah – Investments
Kunal Shah – Philanthropy
Kunal Shah – Controversies
Kunal Shah – Awards and Recognitions

Kunal Shah – Personal Life

Kunal Shah, born on May 20, 1983, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, hailed from a family where his father worked as a businessman, and he often assisted him. When Shah was just 14, his family faced financial difficulties due to his father’s struggling business. To help out, he began working at the age of 15. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Wilson College in Mumbai. Although he started an MBA at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai, he decided to leave the program. Shah’s spouse, Bhavna Shah, works as a freelance graphic designer.

Kunal Shah – Early Life

Shah’s journey into entrepreneurship showcases his unwavering determination and love for innovation. Growing up in Mumbai, India, he showed an early interest in technology and business. After finishing his studies, Shah set out on his entrepreneurial path. His journey began with PaisaBack, his first startup launched in 2009. Initially focusing on promotional discounts, laid the groundwork for his future endeavors. Following this success, Shah, along with Sandeep Tandon, co-founded Freecharge in 2010. Their goal was to revolutionize the payment landscape by offering a simple way for users to recharge their phones and pay bills online. Then, in 2018, he established CRED, a platform for managing credit cards that rewards users for responsible card usage.

Kunal Shah – Career

Under Shah’s guidance, Freecharge rapidly gained popularity, attracting millions of users and catching the eye of investors. In 2015, the company made headlines by being acquired by Snapdeal, a major Indian eCommerce platform, in a groundbreaking deal worth over $400 million. This acquisition was a significant milestone for Shah and Freecharge, confirming the success of their innovative business model and positioning them as leaders in India’s growing fintech sector.

A key factor contributing to Freecharge’s rapid growth was Shah’s keen understanding of consumer behavior and market trends. He identified the increasing demand for digital payment solutions in India, driven by the widespread use of smartphones and internet access. Building on this insight, Shah and his team created a user-friendly platform that simplified the recharge process and rewarded users with cashback and discounts, a novel concept at the time.

In 2018, Shah ventured into a new endeavor by launching CRED, a platform that incentivizes users to pay their credit card bills on time. With CRED, Shah aimed to tackle the rising issue of credit card debt while offering exclusive benefits to users. Once again, Shah showcased his ability to identify untapped market opportunities and develop innovative solutions. The platform’s premium membership program offers exclusive rewards and benefits to its members.

CRED quickly became one of India’s most popular financial apps, with over 10 million downloads and processing about 20% of the country’s credit card payments. Its unique approach to credit card management, combined with its focus on building a community of high-creditworthy individuals, resonated strongly with users nationwide. Today, CRED has millions of members and is one of India’s most valuable fintech startups, with Shah leading its growth and expansion. With $200 million in funding, CRED achieved a $2 billion valuation in 2021.

Kunal Shah – Journey so Far

Kunal Shah’s journey, from co-founding Freecharge to launching CRED, showcases his exceptional leadership skills and entrepreneurial talent. His continuous drive for innovation, combined with his deep grasp of consumer behavior, has propelled him to the forefront of India’s fintech revolution. As he continues to explore new avenues and push the boundaries of what’s possible, Shah serves as a guiding inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and plays a vital role in shaping the future of digital payments.

Shah’s impact extends beyond his startups. He’s a prolific angel investor, backing over 200 companies, including successful ventures like Razorpay, Unacademy, and Innov8.

Apart from his entrepreneurial ventures, Shah is renowned for his insightful perspectives on technology, business, and human behavior. As an active speaker and thought leader, he frequently shares his expertise and insights on various platforms, providing valuable guidance to aspiring entrepreneurs and industry enthusiasts alike. Shah’s astute understanding of emerging trends and his knack for anticipating market shifts have earned him widespread recognition and admiration within the startup community.

Kunal Shah – FreeCharge

In 2010, Shah leaped and established FreeCharge, a digital payments firm offering discounts and cashback to users for their transactions. Initially focusing on mobile recharges, he swiftly broadened its scope to encompass other services like bill payments. Through his innovative approach and unwavering determination, Shah transformed FreeCharge into a widely recognized name in India’s digital payments sector. The company experienced rapid growth, attracting investor interest and culminating in one of the largest acquisitions in India’s startup landscape. In 2015, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge for an impressive $400 million, solidifying Shah’s reputation as a prominent entrepreneur in the country.

Kunal Shah – CRED

Noticing the confusion many Indians faced with credit cards, Kunal Shah identified an opportunity to simplify credit card management and improve financial control. In 2018, he established CRED, a platform rewarding users for responsible credit card usage. Because of Shah’s vision, CRED has become one of India’s most popular financial apps. Its user base has grown swiftly, and the platform now offers services such as credit score tracking, bill reminders, and convenient payments for multiple credit cards. CRED’s premium membership program also provides exclusive rewards and benefits. Additionally, CRED allows users to make house rent payments and offers short-term credit lines. By April 2021, the company had attracted over 5.9 million users and processed around 20% of all credit card bill payments in India. CRED introduced six products, including Cred RentPay, Cred Cash, and Cred Pay. Moreover, in August 2021, CRED launched Cred Mint, a Peer-to-peer lending feature aiming to monetize its 7.5 million users. CRED served as the official sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) from 2020 to 2022.

Kunal Shah – Investments

Kunal Shah’s investment portfolio boasts a remarkable 259 ventures. His most recent involvement was in Nurturev’s Pre Seed Round on February 28, 2024, where the company successfully secured $1 million in funding.

Announced Date	Organization Name	Funding Round
February 28, 2024	Nurturev	Pre-seed Round
February 14, 2024	Segwise	Pre-seed Round
February 8, 2024	Neodocs	Seed Round
January 9, 2024	MyMuse India	Seed Round
January 2, 2024	VRO Hospitality	Venture Round
November 27, 2023	ELIVAAS	Seed Round
November 7, 2023	OnFinance AI	Seed Round
November 3, 2023	Jugyah	Seed Round
October 31, 2023	FreshBus	Seed Round
October 18, 2023	Tap Invest	Seed Round

Kunal Shah – Philanthropy

Shah strongly believes in innovation’s ability to bring about positive transformations and uplift communities. Through his charitable efforts and mentorship initiatives, he actively encourages and guides aspiring entrepreneurs, enabling them to pursue their ambitions and make significant contributions. His steadfast dedication to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship reflects his broader goal of creating a better and more equitable future for everyone.

‘We’re Not Realizing The Risks Of AI’ Says CRED Founder Kunal Shah

Kunal Shah – Controversies

Cred has faced criticism for being overvalued and lacking a clear strategy for making money.

Shah sparked a debate on social media by asserting that success comes from personal effort rather than being inherited.

CRED’s CEO Shah, faced backlash after revealing his salary. During an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Instagram, he disclosed his monthly salary. Responding to a user who was surprised by his modest salary, Shah explained that he earns ₹15,000 per month because he believes he shouldn’t receive a higher salary until the company becomes profitable. He also mentioned that he could manage with this salary because he sold his previous company, FreeCharge, for a significant amount.

Kunal Shah – Awards and Recognitions

Kunal Shah has received many awards and honors for his remarkable journey, highlighting his creative ideas, entrepreneurial talent, and leadership abilities. Some of his notable achievements include:

Forbes India Leadership Awards (2015)
Entrepreneur of the Year (2016)
Top 10 Most Innovative CEOs (2017)
Young Business Leader (2018)
India’s Most Admired Entrepreneur (2019)
Impactful Tech Leader (2020)

FAQs

Who is Kunal Shah?

Kunal Shah is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, and founder of fintech company CRED and FreeCharge.

What is CRED about?

CRED allows credit card users to pay their credit card bills through its platform and extends rewards for each transaction. CRED has become one of India’s most popular financial apps.

When was FreeCharge founded?

In 2010, Kunal Shah established FreeCharge which is a digital payments firm offering discounts and cashback to users for their transactions.

March 4, 2024

Credgenics Startup Story: SaaS-enabled Debt Recovery Platform

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Credgenics.

In India, where the credit demand of more than $600 Billion is being met through informal sources, digital lending is set to cross the $100 Billion mark by the end of 2023. Credgenics is a part of the financial industry, especially the lending and debt recovery ecosystem. Anand Agrawal, Mayank Khera, and Rishabh Goel founded Credgenics in 2018.

The SaaS-enabled debt recovery platform of Credgenics was designed to help lessen the burden of the lenders (banks, NBFCs, FinTech) through better data management and ensuring lesser cost and time consumption in the recovery process. At present, over 50 lenders are using the platform, which includes 07 banks with notable names like ICICI, Axis, and HDFC and more than 40 NBFCs, such as LoanTap, Drip Capital, and Udaan, among others. In the last three years, Credgenics has managed to grow MoM by 80–100%.

StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Rishabh Goel, Co-founder & CEO of Credgenics to learn the Startup Story and the roadmap of Credgenics. He also gave insights on the business model, when it originated, funding, growth hacks, working model, and expansion plans.

Credgenics – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Credgenics
Founders	Rishabh Goel, Anand Agrawal, Mayank Khera
Founding Year	2018
Headquarters	Delhi
Industry	Fintech and Banking
Website	credgenics.com

Credgenics – About the Product and How it Works
Credgenics – Financial Industry Details
Credgenics – Founders and Team
Credgenics History – How it Started?
Credgenics – USP
Credgenics – Name, Tagline and Logo
Credgenics – Business Model and Revenue Model
Strategies Adopted during Credgenics Launch
Credgenics – Startup Challenges Faced
Credgenics – Successful Marketing Campaigns
Credgenics – Growth
Credgenics – Funding and Investors
Credgenics – Competitors
Tools used by Credgenics to run the Startup
Credgenics – Awards and Recognitions

Credgenics – About the Product and How it Works

At Credgenics, the core product is the SaaS platform that comes armed with two unique offerings, the Automated Communication and Digital Legal Notice Module. Its SaaS-enabled debt recovery platform was designed to help lessen the burden of lenders (banks, NBFCs, FinTech) through better data management and ensuring lesser cost and time consumption in the recovery process. The legal module simplifies the entire journey of issuing a legal notice to the borrowers, sending a soft copy via digital channels (SMS, email, and WhatsApp) and physical modes (via courier partners).

Credgenics offers the creditors two solutions —

Where the creditor can purchase its software and undertake the rest of the process, and
The end-to-end recovery where the entire process from data management to Online Dispute Resolution and litigation processes undertaken by Credgenics’ designated teams.

The process entails uploading the data on the platform, generating actions using an automated rule-defining widget, issuing notices, and then approaching borrowers using any of the five modules, such as cloud-based calling, automated communication, and field executive being tracked by the Android app for on-field collection, legal notice, and litigation workflows. Thus, the Credgenics platform becomes a one-stop solution for creditors and their debt recovery woes. Within just a couple of months from its inception, Credgenics could demonstrate a strong product market fit.

Credgenics’ long-term focus is also to strengthen and build further from its present position, which includes equipping itself with a better-enabled team, to growing operations and business by expanding in multiple lending products, apart from the collection angle alone. The plans are also to continue researching and upgrading Credgenics platform features, offerings, and market presence because technology and legal, fields require a constant upgrade. Research and strengthening the core also becomes vital as the judicial and fiscal regulations in the target geographies have to be thoroughly studied, followed by the design and implementation of the Credgenics platform and offerings.

“Our core belief is based on the principle of ethically resolving the bad debt crisis that the economies are dealing with,” says Rishabh Goel, Co-founder & CEO, of Credgenics.

Credgenics – Financial Industry Details

Credgenics is a part of the financial industry, especially the lending and debt recovery ecosystem.

The Debt Recovery Market is expected to grow at a significant pace. The Debt Recovery market provides the various factors that form an important element of the market. It includes the definition and the scope of the market with a detailed explanation of the market drivers, opportunities, restraints, and threats. India has the worst bad-loan ratio after Italy among the world’s 20 largest economies.

In terms of the industry and its growth, since Credgenics has a unique offering, it does not see much competition, especially given its USPs. About Credgenics performance and the metrics, it can be described one by one. Let’s begin with the resolution rate, which has improved by 15–20%. The collection rates are measured in the terms of each DPD resolved within the stipulated time and the success-based module ensures data transparency. Resolution time has improved by 20 days for Credgenics’ clients. The average resolution time is measured by providing concentrated efforts from tele-calling, digital reminders through WhatsApp and Digital Notices, and tracking the EMI repayment and E-mediation. The collection time has improved by 5 times.

The digital disruption introduced by Credgenics saves efficiency in data management and tracking the cases, with dedicated teams per case, ROI for the creditors is compared to the error-prone erstwhile practices.

Credgenics – Founders and Team

Anand Agrawal, Mayank Khera, and Rishabh Goel are the co-founders of Credgenics.

Founders and Owners of Credgenics — Anand Agrawal, Mayank Khera, Rishabh Goel – Credgenics Founders

How the Founding Team was formed?

Anand has a strong Computer Science background (owing to B.Tech and M.Tech, both from IIT-Delhi). IIT-D is their alma mater and that is how Rishabh and Anand knew each other. While Rishabh was making his way through Deutsche Bank and Blackrock as an Investment Banker, Anand was working with the founding team of 1mg. Mayank, whom they knew through common friends, has been on the panel of NHRC, he is a certified mediator and a fellow at the World Mediation Organization, Berlin. This resulted in the best fit.

Anand Agrawal | Co-founder & CTO of Credgenics

Anand was emancipated as an entrepreneur after accumulating years of experience in product technology and engineering. Before embarking on this SaaS-based journey, he gained experience as a Lead in the data science team of 1MG and worked with Urban Company. With a keen interest in the fintech ecosystem, Anand is now the Co-Founder and CTO of Credgenics. With a focus on team building, he exhibits thoughtful leadership and entrepreneurship – be it customizing the platform features and offerings (which includes the communication and data projections), or designing and integrating the website for the company, he ensures that the technology can boost the software-based collection process to reduce bad debts.

Mayank Khera | Co-founder & Legal Brain of Credgenics

An Advocate, a certified mediator, and a fellow World Mediation Organisation, Berlin, Mayank has been associated with many social initiatives to provide justice to the underserved. As part of his dedication to giving back to society, he has regularly visited many jails, including Tihar, Jaipur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, and Jodhpur, among others to provide legal assistance to prisoners. For Credgenics, he is the legal brain that helps with the litigations and the legal notices. Be it the case of e-mediations and settlements, or taking the right legal remedy for the defaulters, his word holds weightage.

Rishabh Goel | Co-founder & CEO of Credgenics

Rishabh handles the marketing, business development, customer engagement, apart from the overall decision-making and risk analysis. For this, he is armed with his Charter in Risk Analysis through the U.S. GAARP courses, namely CFA and FRM. This skill added to his B.Tech helps him understand the business and technology aspects.

“Since, all three of us take care of the three important verticals, we take decisions in unison and exhibit the proof of ‘united we stand’ philosophy” Rishabh added.

Credgenics Hiring Culture and Team

Credgenics has hired from the fintech and consulting firms, and with more clients being onboarded, it aims to increase its team and establish an organizational culture, where each joiner comes with zeal and expertise. The right attitude also matters and the Credgenics’ HR ensures that the new people enhance the culture.

Currently, Credgenics team comprises 170+ members, where its legal team has more than 8 in-house lawyers including Mayank, as the leader and mentor, and they collaborate with 2200+ lawyers pan India. With the future forecast, Credgenics aims to grow with a direction and enhance its offerings and be more customer-oriented.

Credgenics History – How it Started?

Reminiscing the Initial journey of Credgenics, Rishabh Goel (Co-founder& CEO of Credgenics) says –

“The inspiration came back in 2017 when I was working with Blackrock, where I garnered a better understanding of the lending process, specifically from the recovery and collections angle. The realizations continued while working with Deutsche Bank. The collection processes were still age-old and led to poor recovery rates, thereby leading to the constant increase in the NPA with each loan adding up to delinquency. The whole process was taxing the economy and increasing the judicial load (from the recovery angle). Being good with research and risk analysis, I (Rishabh) researched the problem and solution for two years.

During the research, I studied the mechanics of resolving the debt cases using technology-driven amicable methods and analyzing their efficacy in the long term. Though the process is dynamic and the research and problem-solving is still an everyday process, yet back then I started wondering about the technology-aided solutions and started lending some outline to the idea of what has now become Credgenics.

At this point in time, I came in touch with the Co-founder and CTO Anand Agrawal. IIT Delhi being our alma mater, we together started working on the SaaS platform. Anand had experience owing to his M.Tech and then his work with 1MG and Urban Company. He and I started working on a prototype. At this point, we came in touch with Mayank, an advocate, and the idea of legal tech was added. In 2019 we got our first client and that was where we tested our platform for the first time.

The moratorium in 2020 became the testing time and we got plenitude in terms of clients. Since we work on a success-based module, we charge our clients per the success rate.”

Rishabh continues on Credgenics’ Interesting Investor Journey –

“Credgenics team completed the seed round led by Titan Capital along with a few seasoned investors in May 2020. This was where we had garnered the faith of our investors and began gaining the faith of our lenders.

With growing success, within six months, the young and innovative SaaS platform received INR 27 crore (US$3.5 Million) in a pre-Series A round led by Accel Partners, DMI Alternatives fund with participation from existing investors Titan Capital besides marquee angel investors like Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Dilip Khandelwal (MD & Global CIO, Deutsche Bank), Sumit Maniyar (Founder, Rupeek), Ramakanth Sharma (Co-founder, Livspace), Gaurav Agarwal (Co-founder, 1mg), Vivek (Founder, Bounce), Akhil Paul (MD, Caparo Group), Nitin Gupta (ex-Founder, PayU) and Karthik (Ubiquity Capital).”

Credgenics – USP

In India, where the credit demand of more than $600 Billion is being met through informal sources, digital lending is set to cross the $100 Billion mark by the end of 2023. Increased disbursement of credit has also led to a spike in NPAs for both NBFCs and banks. This was an opportunity for Rishabh to put across his knowledge and skillset to work in the Indian market to launch Credgenics, which is at a confluence of legal, technology, and finance.

The biggest challenge the stakeholders noticed was in the data management, which was hardly being updated, and the process was not streamlined. But now, the platform assists lenders in streamlining and digitizing their collections and legal workflows with customized strategies and faster legal solutions for stressed assets.

It also offers Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and mediation services by becoming an intermediary between its clients and borrowers. The ‘plug-and-play SaaS solution digitizes the entire collections process on an easy-to-use interface and provides an AI-powered personalized collections strategy, which optimizes and automates action through automated communication, field agencies, and legal notices.

There are certain USPs that Credgenics bank on:

Updated Dashboards: The Data Analysis team maintains the data and keeps it organized. This data is then analyzed and the results are reflected on its dashboards that keep the internal teams informed about the status of each borrower case, and the lenders also can keep track of each case’s position. This helps to decide the future course of action.
Automated Communication Model: One ingredient Credgenics vouchs for is the communication channels that it uses which include telecommunication, SMS, online legal notices (which are duly tracked), and the data is updated.
Digital Notices: The other USP is the digital notices model where the defaulters are sent digital notices. They are given the notice through a URL which when clicked helps the team also to track the status. This also helps them to identify the nervousness factor of the borrower. In the future, this becomes potential digital evidence if the creditor files for judicial remedy.
Lawyers on board: Credgenics not only has its own Legal Team but also has empanelled lawyers across India who help them with mediation and litigation services, in case the borrower’s account turns delinquent or if the borrower seeks mediation due to a genuine reason behind the inability to pay. During the COVID-19 crisis and the resultant job and market recession, the team has even advised loan restructuring to their client for sensitive cases, so that the client’s risk profile does not suffer, nor does the borrower get entangled in mentally strenuous legal situations.

Credgenics – Name, Tagline and Logo

The name is very self-explanatory in a way. Cred comes from ‘credit’, which stands for not only the credible platform and services that the team were building but also for the credit building through the technology-aided debt collection for the lending institutions. The ‘Genics’ represents the idea of genesis or evolution of the first such platform that aims at creating dents on the NPA crisis and supports the economy as a debt recovery platform. Also, ‘genetics’ in the scientific language means producing, so to the two IIT-ian Co-founders this came as a natural addition to the ‘cred’.

Credgenics tagline ‘Converting Bad Debts into Good Assets’ is based on the basic principles on which the research and the final outcome of what they call Credgenics, and “I would humbly state that this tagline is what we would like to grow further with” says Rishabh.

About the logo, initially, they just had the CG from CredGenics as its logo. But as Credgenics got bigger and designers joined the team, they decided to redo its logo, and the circular motive where C is wrapped around G is not only symbolic of the name but also of the dent they intend to make on the said vicious loan cycle.

Credgenics – Business Model and Revenue Model

Business Model of Credgenics:

The business model of Credgenics revolves around the SaaS platform, which is a one-stop solution for banks, NBFCs, and fintech, among others who are unable to recover the loan amounts from their borrowers. There are two proposals that it presents to its clients –

One of which is the Software platform alone. Here, the client can choose to use the software model, and using the API integration they can put their data and the platform arranges and manages the data. This data then is used by their in-house calling or legal team to communicate with the borrowers.
The second proposal is to use both its software and the collection services. In this, Credgenics seek their data and integrates it using its API. The data is then used by the telecommunication team initially. Where the data for each payment is managed by the Data Analyst teams and the future plan is discussed by the respective collections and legal teams, whereby, if the borrowers refuse to pay, then legal notices are sent and tracked by Credgenics teams. It offers the Online Dispute Resolutions (ODR) to those interested or maintaining the data for its clients if they need to present it as evidence in the court of law.

Revenue Model of Credgenics | Charges and Payments:

When it comes to Credgenics charges, it charges a lump sum amount for the software platform alone. However, if the client seeks the second proposal which is software and services, then it takes specific numbers of cases from the client and then charges a certain percentage over the entire loan amount recovered.

What helps the client with loan recovery is the automated platform that makes data management and communication tracking an easy process. Credgenics also customizes solutions for each client and the challenge is actually with the unsecured loans, where the communication is the secret ingredient and the riskier tiers and lack of documentation often makes the data a mammoth task.

Strategies Adopted during Credgenics Launch

“To be fairly honest, when the moratorium was announced, we thought that for a few months we would have to lie low, however, with the collection becoming challenging in the moratorium and post-moratorium phase, we started getting more clients” Rishabh added.

Initially, Credgenics clients came to them to test its platform. It was the performance that not only made them stay but earned them more clients.

Rishabh says – “Word of mouth our name spread. The present success owes a great deal of accolades to the Business Development and Customer Management team as well, who help us spread our reach and retain those we have on board”

The strategies were fairly uncomplicated. The team demonstrated its platform and features, then they would onboard the client with a set of cases on trial. Once that would shine, they would go further.

Now the team has more strategies, such as newsletters, social media engagements, constant customer engagements and problem-solving, and other such channels that help Credgenics with the recognition. As Credgenics is growing, the team aims to involve better engagement strategies.

Credgenics – Startup Challenges Faced

The biggest challenge that Credgenics faced was reaching out to the borrowers within ethical measures, owing to the pandemic and the pay cuts and job losses it brought along. The other problem that the team identified is language. India is a land of 18 official languages and many dialects. For this, the team brought native speakers, and its notices are also drafted in local languages. This strategy of globalization has not only helped Credgenics bridge a mental distance between the borrowers and collection agents but also make the process more vernacular-oriented, thereby supporting India’s rich ethnic legacy as well.

Legal notices also become a problem because the borrower would either change residence, contact, etc. or can outright deny the receipt of the notices. This makes the door-to-door movement of legal agents a problem and also causes issues in accumulating evidence for the court proceedings. With its URL-enabled digital notices, Credgenics helps the creditors with both notices and evidence.

From the same or similar perspective comes the problem of collection. Credgenics digitized the repayment, thereby reducing the door-to-door collection. This saves the borrowers from embarrassment and saves costs for its clients.

A constant cash flow from the borrower to the creditor is needed to combat the alarming 14.8% NPA, which might grow owing to the global pandemic crisis. Here also, the Credgenics process allows the flow to stay alive, the risk profiles of the creditors to stay afloat, and the CIBIL scores of the borrowers to remain decent.

“We do not intend to see a huge list of defaulters, and that is one problem we combat every day” Rishabh added.

Credgenics – Successful Marketing Campaigns

Since the platform and the offerings were unique and were already a disruption, hence the team did not need an elaborate GTM (go-to-market strategy). The extensive research and the foundational work on the platform and the prevalent condition of the lending ecosystem gave enough input to the founders. Rishabh’s research showed him the loopholes, while Anand’s and Mayank’s expertise helped him fill the gaping holes.

Since the research itself, the founding team kept getting data. This data was utilized and to launch Credgenics as a unique offering, the prospective clients were found using available leads, while for newer leads the professional network over the ecosystem was reached out to. The demonstration sessions were conducted. This GTM was later substantiated by reaching out to more people by content or investor and existing client networks. The implementation of core marketing strategies began later.

The existing lending ecosystem is being disrupted in many ways. To begin with, SaaS platforms are not used to date, as the age-old process of manually floating the data is still being followed by most of the creditors. The platform features data management, which involves tracking the entire system of collection and recovery that each case is going through. The data is then analyzed and shared with the internal teams and the clients. This data also helps in assessing the recovery progress and predicting future possibilities.

The automated communication system is a disruption, where the messages and calls are timely, and The tracked, and yet the privacy measures are duly followed. The other disruption is in the form of Digital Notices. Reducing the manual and strenuous process of lawyers drafting and sending notices, without a proper track of those being received and adhered to had to be reduced. Thus, they came up with digital notices that are triggered when a defaulter case is identified. The notices are tracked through a URL, whereby the receipt is not only recorded but the number of times it is clicked is recorded to predict the nervousness of the borrower. This can also be used in court as evidence if needed.

Credgenics – Growth

Credgenics is located in Delhi and operates its working SaaS-based model from there. At present, It helps more than 40 NBFCs/Fintechs and 7 Banks including HDFC, ICICI Bank, Clix Capital, Shubh Loans, LoanTap, Udaan, MoneyTap, etc., streamline their recovery section with a blend of data-driven technology and legal solutions.

Credgenics – Funding and Investors

Credgenics team completed the seed round led by Titan Capital along with a few seasoned investors in May 2020

In 2020, Credgenics raised $3.5 million in a pre-Series-A round led by Accel Partners, DMI Alternatives fund with participation from existing angel investors Titan Capital.

Credgenics recently raised a substantial funding round of $50 million on August 9, 2023, with investments from Accel and Westbridge Capital.

Date	Stage	Amount	Investor
Aug 9, 2023	Series B – Credgenics	$50 million	Accel, Westbridge Capital
Jul 10, 2021	Series A – Credgenics	$25 million	Tanglin Venture Partners, WestBridge Capital
Oct 29, 2020	Seed Round – Credgenics	$3.3 million	Accel India, Titan Capital
Nov 10, 2019	Seed Round – Credgenics	$0.3 million	Titan Capital

Credgenics – Competitors

Credgenics does not consider anyone as a direct competitor who can provide both collection and legal combined recovery suites on a single SaaS platform but can claim CreditMate as one of the competitors.

Tools used by Credgenics to run the Startup

The SaaS platform is Credgenics’ basic tool, where automated communication through SMS, cloud-based telephone calls, and WhatsApp messages are the other tools. For the data integration, the team relies on API, and AI and ML are the key instruments in the platform and the digital processes. The technology-driven team constantly uses permutations and combinations to keep the dashboards, websites, and communication smooth and personalized. Since servers are decentralized, they are relatively worry-free of data calamities.

Credgenics – Awards and Recognitions

Recently, Credgenics founders got featured in Forbes 30 under 30, and have won the Young Entrepreneur awards from Business Mint for two years in a row.

Credgenics – FAQs

What is Credgenics?

At Credgenics, the core product is the SaaS platform that comes armed with two unique offerings, the Automated Communication and Digital Legal Notice Module. Its SaaS-enabled debt recovery platform was designed to help lessen the burden of the lenders

Who are the founders of Credgenics?

Anand Agrawal, Mayank Khera, and Rishabh Goel are the co-founders of Credgenics.

When was Credgenics founded?

Credgenics was founded in 2018.

How much funding has Credgenics raised?

In 2020, Credgenics raised $3.5 million in a pre-Series-A round led by Accel Partners, DMI Alternatives fund with participation from existing angel investors Titan Capital, among others.

How does Credgenics make money?

When it comes to Credgenics’ charges, it charges a lump sum amount for the software platform alone. However, if the client seeks a complete recovery solution, then it takes a specific number of cases from the client and then charges a certain percentage over the recovered loan amount.

Is Credgenics an Indian Company?

Yes, Credgenics is an Indian company and the headquarters in Delhi, India.

Who are Credgenics’ competitors?

Credgenics claims CreditMate as one of the competitors.

Who are the investors in Credgenics?

Titan Capital, Accel Partners, DMI Alternatives fund

May 9, 2023

List of 16 Biggest Dropout Entrepreneurs in the World
The saying “Winners never quit, and quitters never win” is true, but it seems ironic in the case of entrepreneurs who have quit their academics to pursue their goals instead. Guess what, though? They have accomplished much more than getting good grades from school or university.

People continue to question the decisions that were made by dropouts, asking, “Will they thrive as successful contributors to society?” But trust me when I say that going from being a dropout student with nothing in their pocket to becoming one of the most successful millionaire entrepreneurs in the world has greatly increased respect for determination and commitment to one’s aims.

Biggest Dropout Entrepreneurs in the World
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
Henry Ford
Steve Jobs
Larry Ellison
Larry Page
Jan Koum
Evan Williams
Jack Dorsey
Amancio Ortega
Orji Uzor Kalu
Michael Dell
John Mackey
Azim Premji
Kunal Shah
Ritesh Agarwal

Biggest Dropout Entrepreneurs in the World

Dropping out of school or college is considered one of the biggest mistakes in one’s life. However, there are certain people who have proved this notion wrong by turning this mistake into huge achievements. The following is a list of the biggest entrepreneurs in the world, who dropped out of their education in the middle.

Bill Gates

Name Bill Gates

Net Worth $114 Billion (2022)

Source Microsoft Corporation

Dropout From Harvard University

Bill Gates

Bill Gates is known to be the inventor of the college-dropout billionaire trope in 1975 when he left Harvard to start his career in establishing Microsoft. At the age of 13, he wrote his first software program to get admission to a private Lakeside school, which revealed his affinity for programming.

Whilst at Lakeside school, Gates earned the title of National Merit Scholar, in which he scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT. To support his father’s dream of making him becoming a lawyer, he enrolled at Harvard as a pre-law student in 1973, and aced mathematics and computer science courses.

After dropping out of Harvard, in 1975 Gates founded ‘Microsoft’ with his friend Paul, and produced the first-of-its-kind programming language BASIC for the MITS Altair 8800 ‘Microcomputer,’ an early personal computer. He had chosen the path, which he is good at, not the path his parents wanted him to choose.

Mark Zuckerberg

Name Mark Zuckerberg

Net Worth $70 Billion (2022)

Source Meta (formerly Facebook)

Dropout From Harvard University

Mark Zuckerberg

One of the famous media magnates is the CEO of Meta Platforms- Mark Zuckerberg. He attended his schooling at Ardsley High school before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy. He started using computer and software programming in middle school, where he built a program that connected wireless communication between his and his father’s dental office.

In 2002, Mark got into Harvard to study Psychology and Computer Science and was already known as a ‘programming prodigy’. At that time, Mark came up with a new code for his new website- Facebook, however, faced a lot of problems in establishing it, so he decided to quit Harvard in 2005 to focus on building his dream, Facebook.

Henry Ford

Name Henry Ford

Net Worth $190 billion, (1947, adjusted for inflation)

Source Ford Motor Company

Dropout From High School

Henry Ford

The automobile ruler created a revolutionary movement in transportation and the automobile industry. Ford completed his eighth grade at a one-room school and instead of attending sophomore, he enrolled in a bookkeeping course at a commercial school.

Contradictory, Ford was much more interested in building something big than sitting at a desk & bookkeeping. When he was 12 years old, that was the first time he found a purpose in his life when he witnessed the operation of a Nichols and Shepard road engine from a watch gifted by his father. In 1882 Ford returned to his family farm after working as an apprentice machinist in Detroit.

While he was working on the family farm, he became adept at operating the Westinghouse portable steam engine, whereby he completed his first gasoline car powered by a two-cylinder, four-horsepower engine and eventually built three cars in his home workshops, which was a stepping stone to the development of the renowned brand ‘Ford’.

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Steve Jobs

Name Steve Jobs

Net Worth $10.2 billion (2011)

Source Apple Inc.

Dropout From Reed College

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, the innovation king, was also once a problematic child during his school times, where he played a lot of pranks on teachers and never showed a slight interest in studies.

He even skipped 5th Grade and transferred straight into 6th grade at Crittenden Middle school, where he became a victim of the bully. In fact, his family moved to Los Altos and joined Homestead High school for a better life, which was surrounded by an environment of engineering families.

In 1971, Steve Jobs decided to join the electronics club with his best friend Wozniak, who got into the University of California, Berkeley. At that time, Wozniak designed a low-cost digital ‘blue box’ to manipulate the telephone network, by allowing free long-distance calls.

In 1971, Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College after the very first semester, because he didn’t want to waste his parent’s money on an education that seemed meaningless to him and worked as a technician at Atari, Inc. in 1972. In 1976, Jobs, and fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak, built the Apple I in his parent’s garage.

Larry Ellison

Name Larry Ellison

Net Worth $91 Billion (2022)

Source Oracle Corporation

Dropout From University of Chicago

Larry Ellison

Larry Ellison was once a dropout student, but now he was listed as one of the wealthiest people on the planet by Bloomberg Billionaires Index in July 2022. Larry Ellison attended South Shore High school and later enrolled as a pre-med student at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

At the University, he was rewarded and named ‘Science student of the year. Unexpectedly, he hadn’t appeared for his final exams as his adoptive mother passed away. In 1966, he attended the University of Chicago for one term, where he learned computer design and technology, and later dropped out of it.

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Larry Page

Name Larry Page

Net Worth $83 Billion (2022)

Source Google

Dropout From Stanford University

Larry Page

Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, found himself attracted to computers when he was 6 years old and even became the first kid in the rudimentary school to turn in an assignment from a word processor.

At the age of 12, he wanted to start a company by inventing new things and eventually developed an interest in technology and business. Larry Page was a radiant student in schooling as well as an undergrad. He did his schooling at Montessori Radmoor and East Lansing High School.

Page received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science from Stanford both in the field of computer science. After joining his: Ph.D. and he started his research in Computer Science at Stanford University and pursued his full-time interest in building the World Wide Web. However, in 1999 Larry couldn’t complete his Ph.D. degree and dropped out of college to focus more on his main aim.

Jan Koum

Name Jan Koum

Net Worth $13.3 Billion (2022)

Source WhatsApp

Dropout From San Jose University

Jan Koum

The co-founder of Whatsapp Jan Koum enrolled at San Jose State University because he was interested to learn to program. At the same time, he worked at Ernst & Young as a security tester. In 1997, He left his studies mid-way, because he was hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer.

Evan Williams

Name Evan Williams

Net Worth $1.8 Billion (2022)

Source Twitter

Dropout From University of Nebraska

Evan Williams

In Clarks, Nebraska, Evan Williams was raised on family property. Before quitting, he spent three semesters enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Williams worked as a contractor writing software for Hewlett-Packard and Intel and then also secured a position at Google. Later, he left his position at Google to start his entrepreneurial journey of establishing Twitter.

Jack Dorsey

Name Jack Dorsey

Net Worth $4.2 Billion (2022)

Source Twitter

Dropout From New York University

Jack Dorsey

A 1999 New York University dropout is the co-founder of Twitter and Square, two of the most talked-about firms in recent memory. Jack founded Twitter along with Ev Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass after briefly working as a masseur and a fashion designer. At this time, Dorsey is valued around $5.6 billion.

The above graph shows the percentage of Forbes Billionaires by their educational institute type. The graph is made as per the data shared by entrepreneur.com and the study conducted by Wai & Rindermann.

Amancio Ortega

Name Amancio Ortega

Net Worth $61.6 Billion (2022)

Source Inditex

Dropout From School

Amancio Ortega

Amancio Ortega, dropped out of school at the age of 14, because his father was a railway worker and couldn’t afford much to pay. So, Amancio Ortega joined a local shirtmaker named ‘Gala’, which actually taught him how to make clothes by hand and inspired him to build one of the largest clothing retailer companies, Inditex, known for its chain of Zara and Bershka.

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Orji Uzor Kalu

Name Orji Uzor Kalu

Net Worth $1.1 Billion (2022)

Source SLOK Holding

Dropout From Nigerian University

Orji Uzor Kalu

Orji Uzor Kalu was 19 years old when he was dismissed from the Nigerian university after being found instigating a series of student riots. In order to start trading goods like rice, sugar, and palm oil, he requested $35 from his mother.

By diversifying his investments, he became a millionaire by the age of 20. He was ranked by Forbes as the 49th richest person in Africa in 2015. He originally established SLOK Holding, a West African company with profit shareholding in shipping, banking, manufacturing, etc.

Michael Dell

Name Michael Dell

Net Worth $56.1 Billion (2022)

Source Dell Technologies

Dropout From University of Texas

Michael Dell

In 1983, Michael Dell was a student at the University of Texas, although he occupied much of his energy in his college dorm room updating and hawking devices. Dell founded PCs Ltd. at the age of 19, which eventually grew into Dell Computer Corporation in 1987.

He then obtained a license from the State of Texas to submit bids for big contracts after starting to sell upgrade modules for personal computers from his hostel. At the age of 27, Michael Dell was the youngest CEO on the Fortune 500 list. He currently has a net worth of almost $20 billion.

John Mackey

Name John Mackey

Net Worth $85 Million (2022)

Source Whole Foods Market

Dropout From Texas University

John Mackey

John Mackey studied Philosophy and Theology at Texas University, Austin in 1978. Renee Lawson Hardy and he first met when he enrolled in a vegetarian co-op at the university.

The couple dropped out of school and founded SaferWay, the first vegetarian supermarket in Austin. It ultimately paved the way for Whole Foods, the 30th leading retailer in the United States measured by revenues in 2014.

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Azim Premji

Name Azim Premji

Net Worth $9 Billion (2022)

Source Wipro

Dropout From Stanford University

Azim Premji

Azim Premji is another biggest entrepreneurs on the list of dropout entrepreneurs. is the son of a very famous businessman, who is also known as the Rice king of Burma, Mohamed Hashem Premji. Azim had to drop out of his education at Stanford because he had to take care of his family’s oil business after his father’s sudden demise.

Subsequently, Azim Premji became solely responsible to look after his father’s business in India. He completed his studies to get a Bachelor of science in electronic engineering degree from Stanford University after 30 years.

Kunal Shah

Name Kunal Shah

Source CRED

Net Worth $809 Million (2022)

Dropout From Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies

Kunal Shah

Kunal Shah graduated from Wilson College with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. He then enrolled at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies for an MBA degree, which he ultimately left. His initial business was PaisaBack, which provided kickbacks from merchants. Among many of the top college dropout Indian entrepreneurs, Kunal Shah is one of the most well-known names.

He is a founding member of FreeCharge, a reputable internet recharge service. 2012 saw the launch of the business, which Snapdeal soon bought. With its first three recharges and matching-value incentives, FreeCharge completely changed the way that internet recharges work. He is currently known best for being the founder of one of India’s unicorn startups CRED.

Ritesh Agarwal

Name Ritesh Agarwal

Net Worth $1.1 Billion (2020)

Source OYO Rooms

Dropout From Indian School of Business & Finance, New Delhi

Ritesh Agarwal

One of the youngest Indian Billionaires, Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO Rooms. He was from a middle-class family. He completed his higher schooling at St. John’s Senior Secondary School and moved to New Delhi for college in 2011.

But, shortly, he quit as his project idea of Oravel stays Pvt Ltd was selected by the Thiel Fellowship program in 2013, which granted 100,000 USD, with which he launched OYO rooms.

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Conclusion

These are some of the most successful entrepreneurs who have found greatness despite not having the appropriate education. They serve as the best illustration that what you study doesn’t define you. It is your hard work and determination and passion that speaks for you.

FAQs

Who is the most successful dropout?

Bill Gates is the most successful dropout in terms of net worth. He possesses a net worth of $110.5 billion as of July 2022.

How many billionaires have no college degree?

As per the billionaire census by Wealth X (2015), about 3 out of the 10 billionaires have no proper college degree. Some of the most popular names who became successful without a proper college degree include Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Amancio Ortega, and more.

Who is a famous Harvard dropout?

Some of the famous Harvard dropouts are:
- Bill Gates
- Mark Zukerberg
- Robert Frost
- David Foster Wallace
- Matt Damon
December 26, 2022
A Glimpse of Kunal Shah’s Most Successful Investments

Unacademy, Slice, RazorPay, ChefKart, Khatabook, and Digit Insurance are all companies that have two things in common. They are all a part of the Indian startup ecosystem and they are all a part of the Kunal Shah Investment Portfolio.

Who is Kunal Shah
Most Successful Kunal Shah’s Investment

Who is Kunal Shah

He is a man with many adjectives – an active angel investor, serial entrepreneur, mentor, and advisor. The Indian startup ecosystem recognizes Kunal Shah as the Founder & CEO of CRED, a fin-tech Indian unicorn. He fulfills the advisory role in multiple well-known organizations like Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., AngelList, Sequoia Capital, and the Indian division of Y Combinator. The enigmatic man has an investment portfolio that is more than 200 startups strong. In 2021, Hurun India said Kunal Shah held the most number of investments in startups that may become unicorns in the next few years.

A source close to Kunal Shah said – “Kunal really wants to do what he can for the ecosystem. If that one random founder can sell his company’s story to investors because Kunal Shah’s name is on his pitch deck, he does not mind that. This is his version of philanthropy.”

Most Successful Kunal Shah’s Investment

Over the years many startups that have been funded by Kunal Shah have seen phenomenal success. Of course, some have missed the mark but the successful one have been on a growth and expansion journey that is inspirational.

1. Unacademy

Unacademy

Unacademy is an ed-tech platform that was founded in 2015 by Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, and Roman Saini and is headquartered in Bangalore. It began unconventionally as a YouTube tutorial channel of short videos by Gaurav Munjal, then an engineering student n himself. By December 2015, Hemesh and Roman joined him to launch the Unacademy app which aimed at creating free interactive content.

It quickly gained popularity and by 2017 more than 5000 educators, 1 million learners, and more than 40,000 classes were launched. In January 2017, Unacademy raised USD 4.5 million in Series A funding and a year later it acquired the Jaipur-based online exam preparation and learning platform WIFIStudy for USD 10 million. Its growth continued as it launched its subscription-based model Unacademy Plus in 2019. In the same year, it also secured funding of approximately USD 87 million from investors. 2020 saw Unacademy achieve the coveted unicorn status and was named as one of the official sponsors of the Indian Premier League for 2020-2022. It also raised a Series G funding in November 2020 at a valuation of USD 2 billion. A year later, in 2021, it raised USD 440 million in a series of H funding. The beginning of this year saw Unacademy become one of the founding members of IAMAI’s India Edtech consortium.

2. RazorPay

Razorpay

Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur founded the fintech company Razorpay in 2015 which is headquartered in Bangalore. It was the fintech startup’s aim to provide frictionless transactions for online businesses with clean, developer-friendly APIs and hassle-free integration.

It earned unicorn status in 2020 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic through its October 2020 funding round and raising USD 100 million. In December 2021, it raised USD 375 million in Series F funding and became the most valued fintech startup in India at USD 7.5 billion as of December 2021. Razorpay’s total funding as of June 2022 is USD 815.7 million.

The growth trajectory of Razorpay has been consistent throughout the years. In 2017 it launched four products namely Route, Smart Collect, Subscriptions, and Invoices allowing businesses to manage multiple aspects of money movement. It also launched a subsidiary named Razorpay Capital, a lending platform supporting SMEs with easy and quick access to lenders. As technology is evolving, Razorpay is adding more and better features including introducing Razorpay X. Razorpay X is a unique solution allowing businesses to conduct every activity that is offered by banks.

3. Digit Insurance

Digit Insurance

Headquartered in Bangalore, Digit Insurance was founded by Kamlesh Goyal in 2017. As the name suggests, the company primarily deals in insurance products and financial services. Digit Insurance’s product portfolio includes health insurance, car insurance, commercial vehicle insurance, 2-wheeler insurance, and travel insurance.

The insurance firm has gone through eight funding rounds and raised a total funding of USD 530.8 million. It reached unicorn status in 2021. As of January 2022, Digit Insurance was valued at approximately USD 3.54 billion.

Since its inception, Digit Insurance’s growth has been consistent and it witnessed its highest growth in 2020 with 31.9% and earning a premium of USD 186 million between April 2020 and December 2020. This growth amidst the Covid-19 lockdowns and subsequent restrictions was owed to two of their products – Covid Health Insurance and Fire Insurance. In FY 2021-2022 Digit Insurance recorded its total gross recorded premium since inception at USD 52.68 billion. The insurance company is considering an IPO in a bid to raise USD 500 million to be listed by January 2023.

4. Khatabook

Khata Book

It is popularly known as Digital India’s Digital Khata. It was launched in 2018 in Bangalore by Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe, and Jaideep Poonia and has emerged as India’s fastest-growing SaaS company. Khatabook is a business management app, operating on an Android platform that enables MSMEs to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and digitize their accounting. The app also supports online payments and is available in 12 regional languages which cater to a diverse audience.

By the year 2020, Khatabook had a user base of merchants from 95% of Indian districts recording USD 100 billion in transactions and more than 150 million customers. The business has witnessed a phenomenal growth trajectory by registering more than 5 crore businesses spread over more than 4000 cities across India.

Khatabook has raised a total of USD 186.5 million in its four rounds of funding. As of August 2021, Khatabook was valued at approximately USD 600 million. Going forward, Khatabook intends to grow its business two or three times by remaining committed to the MSME segment and simplifying the traditional way of doing business. Its app is already widely accepted within the MSME framework of the country. Khatabook is now looking forward to offering disbursement of financial services through its tech platform.

Conclusion

Over the years, there are many startups that Kunal Shah has funded. The success stories that have emerged from these investments are proof of the ingenuity of the Indian entrepreneurial mind. These companies have grown and expanded and show every sign of marching forward into the future with their focus firmly on making their businesses better and more innovative. Some of the new startups that Kunal has invested in are AntWalk, BimaPlan, Bundle-O-Joy, Coffee and many more within the time this article was framed. The future looks promising and it will be interesting to see which of these startups make it to the next generation of unicorns.

FAQs

Is Kunal an angel Shah investor?

Kunal Shah has topped the list of angel investors with more than 200 investments done across startups such as Razorpay, Unacademy, Khatabook, Mensa, Digit Insurance, and more.

What is the qualification of Kunal Shah?

Kunal Shah graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Wilson College, Mumbai, and briefly pursued an MBA from SVKM’s NMIMS before dropping out.

How many companies has Kunal Shah invested in?

Kunal Shah has made investments in 210 companies.

December 5, 2022
List of All the Startups Acquired by Cred

Cred is a popular fintech company founded by Kunal Shah in 2018. It is a reward-based credit card payments startup. Recently, Cred raised $80 million in its latest funding round at a $6.4 billion valuation. Even after making a loss of Rs 524 crore in FY21 why is this company getting so many investors? Is Cred more than just a credit card payment app?

To find answers to these questions let’s see what acquisitions Cred has made in recent times. This will give us a clear idea of the future plans of Cred.

HipBar
Parfait Finance and Investment
Happay

HipBar

HipBar Logo

In October 2021, Cred acquired HipBar, an alcohol delivery and payment startup. Cred was interested in this deal because HipBar has a prepaid payment instrument license (PPI).

Now, what is PPI? It is a prepaid payment instrument that allows the payment of goods and services, including fund transfers against the value stored on the prepaid card. RBI has issued this license to only 37 firms in the country.

Using the PPI licence, Cred can issue cash vouchers and prepaid cards and can facilitate digital wallets for the Cred community.

Cred’s holding firm Dreamplug Technologies has held the share capital of Prasanna Natarajan, founder and CEO of HipBar and Rajalakshmi Natarajan, co-founder and director of HipBar.

Kunal Shah and his brother Rohan Shah have joined the board of HipBar as directors. Rajalakshmi has resigned from the company. Although Prasanna is still a director.

With this acquisition, Cred will now directly give cashback to the user’s wallet instead of their bank accounts. Users can then use the wallet to pay credit card bills and purchase products from its merchant partners.

This is a smart strategy by the company to make the customers stay connected with their ecosystem.

“It appears to be a smart move as the wallet would enable CRED to drive repeat transactions through its own payment instrument,” said one of the entrepreneurs who doesn’t want his name mentioned in the article.

Parfait Finance and Investment

In November 2021 Kunal Shah acquired a non-banking finance company, Parfait Finance and Investment. RBI has approved this acquisition and it will help the company to extend its lending services to its users.

This acquisition is part of Kunal Shah’s plans to provide a range of financial services to its exclusive Cred community. The company is already providing loans through a partnership with IDFC First Bank.

The company has also launched Cred Mint by partnering with LiquiLoans, an RBI-registered P2P non-banking lender. Cred Mint allows users to lend money to other Cred users.

The company has also applied for a payments aggregator license. Using this license Cred can process the payment of merchants with consumers online. The merchants can accept payments in the form of debit cards, credit cards, e-wallets, or bank transfers.

The payments aggregator license will help Cred to enable e-commerce on its platform.

Happay

Happay Logo

In December 2021, Cred acquired Happay, a corporate expense management platform, in a cash-and-stock deal at a valuation of $180 million.

Happay is a business expense, payments and travel management platform that manages work-related expenses for over 1 million users globally.

This deal allows Happay to work as a separate company but its employees will work closely with Cred to help the company scale its business and add new financial services for the Cred users.

The 230 member team of Happay will get all the benefits that the employees of Cred get, including its ESOP program.

“The move will bring in synergies between Cred, the majority of whose members are professionals who use it to manage personal payments across multiple credit cards, and Happay, the only unified platform for business expenses, payments, and travel bookings,” a statement by Cred said.

Happay’s in-house payments system will help the Cred users to manage their expenses on their credit cards.

“With professional expenses forming a significant portion of credit card spends, bringing professional expense management into the Cred ecosystem is a natural extension of our proposition,” Kunal Shah said.

Conclusion

As you can see Kunal Shah is making Cred future ready. The company is unveiling multiple revenue verticals in the form of house rental payments, lending and wallet payment business along with e-commerce.

These acquisitions show us that Cred in the future might become a banking institution for its exclusive users. It will make the platform an irreversible ecosystem for its exclusive Cred community.

FAQs

How many startups Cred has acquired?

In total, Cred has acquired 3 startups. HipBar, which is an alcohol delivery and payment startup, Parfait Finance and Investment, which is a non-banking finance company and Happay, is a corporate expense management platform which will allow users to manage their expenses on their credit cards using the Cred app.

Is Cred approved by RBI?

The services that Cred offers to its users do not require the approval of RBI. The credit score of the users is verified by a credit rating agency which is also authorized by the RBI.

Is Cred a unicorn startup?

Cred entered the unicorn club in 2021 after raising $215 million in funding, at a post-money valuation of $2.2 billion.

July 16, 2022

Name	Bill Gates
Net Worth	$114 Billion (2022)
Source	Microsoft Corporation
Dropout From	Harvard University

Name	Mark Zuckerberg
Net Worth	$70 Billion (2022)
Source	Meta (formerly Facebook)
Dropout From	Harvard University

Name	Henry Ford
Net Worth	$190 billion, (1947, adjusted for inflation)
Source	Ford Motor Company
Dropout From	High School

Name	Steve Jobs
Net Worth	$10.2 billion (2011)
Source	Apple Inc.
Dropout From	Reed College

Name	Larry Ellison
Net Worth	$91 Billion (2022)
Source	Oracle Corporation
Dropout From	University of Chicago

Name	Larry Page
Net Worth	$83 Billion (2022)
Source	Google
Dropout From	Stanford University

Name	Jan Koum
Net Worth	$13.3 Billion (2022)
Source	WhatsApp
Dropout From	San Jose University

Name	Evan Williams
Net Worth	$1.8 Billion (2022)
Source	Twitter
Dropout From	University of Nebraska

Name	Jack Dorsey
Net Worth	$4.2 Billion (2022)
Source	Twitter
Dropout From	New York University

Name	Amancio Ortega
Net Worth	$61.6 Billion (2022)
Source	Inditex
Dropout From	School

Name	Orji Uzor Kalu
Net Worth	$1.1 Billion (2022)
Source	SLOK Holding
Dropout From	Nigerian University

Name	Michael Dell
Net Worth	$56.1 Billion (2022)
Source	Dell Technologies
Dropout From	University of Texas

Name	John Mackey
Net Worth	$85 Million (2022)
Source	Whole Foods Market
Dropout From	Texas University

Name	Azim Premji
Net Worth	$9 Billion (2022)
Source	Wipro
Dropout From	Stanford University

Name	Kunal Shah
Source	CRED
Net Worth	$809 Million (2022)
Dropout From	Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies

Name	Ritesh Agarwal
Net Worth	$1.1 Billion (2020)
Source	OYO Rooms
Dropout From	Indian School of Business & Finance, New Delhi

Sandeep Tandon: A Technology Entrepreneur/Investor and Co-founder of FreeCharge

Sandeep Tandon is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and mentor for the startups and entrepreneurs of today. Tandon is widely recognized as the Co-founder of one of India’s first mobile payment platforms FreeCharge, along with Kunal Shah, which was sold to Snapdeal in March 2015 and was eventually acquired by Axis Bank in 2017. He currently serves as the Managing Director of Tandon Group, a technology catalyst that owns numerous businesses by providing resources to startup companies in India and North America, along with being a Board Member and Executive Chairman of a number of other companies.

Tandon is an active Angel Investor and aids as a mentor to several technology startups. He has served the technology industry for more than 20 years now. He holds a net worth of over Rs.11.5 crore, as of 30 September 2020.

Sandeep Tandon- Biography

Name	Sandeep Tandon
Born	17 May, 1969
Birthplace	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Age	52 (2021)
Nationality	Indian
Education	University of Southern California
Profession	Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Investor
Position	Co-founder, FreeCharge , Board Member, CRED
Net worth	Rs 11.5 crore ( 30 September 2020 )

Sandeep Tandon- Early Life
Sandeep Tandon- Career
Sandeep Tandon- Personal Life
Sandeep Tandon- Professional Life
Sandeep Tandon- FreeCharge
Sandeep Tandon- Tandon Group
Sandeep Tandon- Board of Director
Sandeep Tandon- Angel Investor

Sandeep Tandon- Early Life

*Sandeep Tandon & Kunal Shah | FreeCharge Founders*

Sandeep Tandon was born and brought up in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. His career graph ran across California and Mumbai. After completing his graduation, Tandon initially started with a Los Angeles startup firm, which he eventually resigned from in order to set up his own accounts payable company.

Sandeep Tandon- Career

Sandeep Tandon completed his formal education from Bombay Scottish. He further pursued the Bachelors and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

He has a connection with Harvard University, where he served as the Owner President Manager- YPO Presidents Seminar and studied Business Administration and Management (2008 to 2017).

Sandeep Tandon- Personal Life

Sandeep Tandon currently resides in Mumbai with his family, and frequently mentors future leaders.

Sandeep Tandon- Professional Life

After completing his education, Sandeep worked as an application engineer for a Los Angeles startup. Soon, he left the startup to launch his own accounts payable company, IQBackOffice. However, he sold his company in the year 2000 and then decided to return to India to work for Celetronix.

He examined the operations of Celetronix India until 2006 when it was sold to Jabil Circuits. He eventually served as the Chairman of the Electronics Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). Moreover, he is also a Member of Young President Organisation (Mumbai Chapter). In 2010, he co-founded FreeCharge, which became India’s fastest-growing mobile payment app. FreeCharge initially was started as an Indian financial services platform that enabled the users to pay their phone bills and other utility bills from their mobile devices and was gradually transformed into an eCommerce platform, here Tandon had a huge contribution for sure.

After the acquisition of FreeCharge, Sandeep Tandon served as the Non-Executive Chairman of AAVAS Financiers since 27 July 2017. FreeCharge, which was built by Sandeep Tandon and CRED Founder, Kunal Shah, was sold to Snapdeal for a whopping $400 mn in 2015, which is easily one of the largest deals to date in the consumer internet space. This utility bill payment company was again acquired by Axis Bank on July 27, 2017, in a deal worth $60 mn.

He is currently serving several key leadership designations at once. He is presently an Executive Board Member at Infinx Healthcare, a software that provides patient access and revenue cycle management for healthcare providers; the Executive Chairman of Syrma Technology, an electronics manufacturing service provider. He is also a Member of the Board of Advisors at USC Viterbi School of Engineering, IIFL Investment Managers, and Iron Pillar. Along with this, Tandon has also the Chairman Of The Board at Aavas Financiers Ltd and an investing partner of Whiteboard Capital since January 2018.

He is the Managing Director at Tandon Group, through which he examines a bunch of companies and works as an Angel Investor providing funding for startup ventures. Besides, Tandon is still serving as a Board Member at CRED.

Sandeep Tandon- FreeCharge

FreeCharge Logo

Sandeep Tandon co-founded FreeCharge in August 2010 with Kunal Shah. The company was headquartered in Gurugram, India. The users having pre-paid phones can purchase minutes through the FreeCharge app or website. It basically initiated the transformation of purchasing minutes from their own device instead of buying minutes from the store.

He also co-founded Accelyst Solutions Private Limited. FreeCharge is founded by its parent company, Accelyst Solutions, where Sandeep has been serving as the Chief Business Officer since 1 September 2015. The company offers a varied range of online recharge services to prepaid mobile, DTH, and data card operators.

Tandon continued to transform FreeCharge into an e-commerce venture and it operates in India. However, the company was acquired by Snapdeal in India’s largest M&A internet deal in March 2015.

Founder of Freecharge at Tech Sparks

Sandeep Tandon- Tandon Group

Sandeep as the Managing Director examines the operations of Tandon Technology Ventures (Tandon Group). Through his venture, he oversees the strategy to fund startup companies as an Angel Investor. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Mumbai and Silicon Valley.

Subsidiaries of Tandon Group
Syrma Technology Private Limited
TIS International (USA)
TIS-BPO
Tancom Electronics Private Limited
Tandon Information Solutions Private Limited
Tovya Automation Private Limited
Tandon Advance Devices Private Limited

Sandeep Tandon- Board of Director

Sandeep serves as the Member of the Board of Directors at various companies. He is a Member of the Board of Advisors at USC Viterbi School of Engineering since March 2014.

He is also a Member of the Board of Advisors of a Seed fund, IIFL Investment Managers, and Iron Pillar since January 2017. He became the Member Board of Directors at CRED in October 2018 and is presently still aligned with the firm.

Sandeep Tandon- Angel Investor

Sandeep has made 21 investments to date. His investment in the Seed Round of indiagold is the most recent one that came in on February 27, 2021.

He invested in an Angel Round- Genius Teacher on 19 October 2020 followed by another investment on February 25, 2021, after which came the investment in indiagold. He has raised funding of $2 million for Genius Teacher. The same day, he raised $6 million in seed funding for a venture named Dukaan.

He has raised $10 million for Atomberg Technology on 4 September 2019. Another organization, Progcap received funding of $5 million on 31 July 2019.

On 6 June 2017, Spinny got funding of $1 million. Unacademy received Series A funding of $4.5 million on 13 January 2017. Pocket Aces was bestowed with a funding of $3 million on 15 December 2016. Bharat Bazaar was funded as well on 4 October 2016.

Here’s a look at some of the recent investments made by Sandeep Tandon:

Investment Date	Name of the Company	Name of the Funding Rounds
February 27, 2021	indiagold	Seed Round
February 25, 2021	Raise Financial Services	Seed Round
October 19, 2020	Genius Teacher	Angel Round
October 19, 2020	Dukaan	Seed Round
September 4, 2019	Atomberg Technology	Series A
July 31, 2019	Progcap	Series A
June 6, 2017	Spinny	Seed Round
January 13, 2017	Unacademy	Series A
December 15, 2016	Pocket Aces	Series A
October 14, 2016	Bharat Bazaar	Seed Round

Sandeep Tandon- FAQs

What is FreeCharge app?

FreeCharge is one of India’s leading payments app. Consumers can use it for making postpaid, prepaid, metro recharge, DTH, and other utility payments across the country.

Is FreeCharge Indian app?

Yes, it’s an Indian app.

Is FreeCharge safe?

Yes, Freecharge is quite safe to use. This online recharge and bill payments platform is now owned by Axis Bank.

What is Sandeep Tandon’s Net Worth?

Sandeep Tandon had a net worth of Rs 11.5 Crore when estimated in 2020.

February 24, 2022

Freecharge Business Model | How Freecharge makes Money?
Are you interested in gathering all the information about the business model of Freecharge? If yes, then here we have something that can help you out. In this piece of writing we will walk you through the journey of Freecharge.

Freecharge is an ecommerce website that has revolutionized the way people do business. It is the name that appears in everyone’s mind when somebody talks about doing phone recharge. It is one of the successful companies that has gained a million user base in its starting year. Cash shortages have punctuated Freecharge’s path, shifting leadership, from conquering the Indian market via mobile recharges to clinching the most significant purchase ever in the country’s startup community.

We all know about the Snapdeal Acquisition. Right? It was one of the biggest purchase made up in the startup community.

Axis Bank has purchased Freecharge from its parent firm Snapdeal for $60 million in the most recent development.

Freecharge- About
Freecharge- Business Model
How Freecharge earns Money?
Freecharge- Marketing Strategy
Conclusion
FAQs

Freecharge- About

Technical entrepreneurs- Sandeep Tandon and Kunal Shah established Freecharge, which was formerly known as Paisaback. Paisaback is like Groupon, a leading company in the United States that deals with promotional offerings such as rewards points, discounts, and vouchers. They began their business in Bombay. After discovering that a mobile phone retailer was deriving all of its revenues from the money generated by its prepaid client base, the company’s partners came up with the concept of Freecharge.

Tandon and Shah eventually left Paisaback and launched Freecharge in August 2010. This website’s first service was mobile phone recharging. They quickly expanded its transaction verticals, including postpaid cell phone bills, DTH, data packages, and utility bills such as gas, water, electricity, and telephone bills.

Soon after, they start handing out discount vouchers for popular food and shopping locations, equal to the recharge price. The site has 1.5 million customers and 10,000 sales daily thanks to partners including McDonald’s, Puma, Domino’s, Cafe Coffee Day, Crossword, Croma, and numerous e-commerce sites.

Freecharge has almost twelve million subscribers and five million smartphone app downloads, according to the latest survey. It’s one of the greatest rates of growth in the recharging sector. Freecharge has partnered with numerous commercial websites such as MakeMyTrip, Myntra, and Amazon. If a user transacts on these sites using Freecharge, they get rewarded with Freecharge Credits.

Freecharge claims to have a transaction time of 10 seconds and a success percentage of 99 percent. It has a 70% customer retention rate and a monthly use frequency of more than five times each user.

founder of freecharge- Kunal Shah

Freecharge- Business Model

Now comes the section where we are going to put light on the business model of Freecharge. It depends on two things which are direct recharge or online banking, and the second is a brand advertisement. One can access their service via a website or mobile app. When customers utilize their services, they are rewarded with money for shopping vouchers for major stores, restaurants, and cab services, making it a nearly free recharge. It operates in the same way as Freecharge’s large-scale advertising does, and the voucher owner receives more visits than any local news media, so it’s not a waste of resources for them.

Now talking about the second source, which is a brand advertisement. For this particular, Freecharge has made tie-ups with several brands such as Dominos, Puma, Croma, Shoppers stops, and much more. When you recharge, you will get rewards or discount vouchers for local shops. Premium vouchers can also be obtained by paying a small fee. Ultimately, your recharge gets topped up with deals equivalent to the recharge amount, thus rendering it accessible. So it is a win-win case for both other brands as well as Freecharge. Freecharge creates customers for other brands, and customers are happy with Freecharge because they are getting free vouchers.

How Freecharge earns Money?

Now the mystery must be sprouting in your head, how Freecharge is making money. Freecharge collects the email addresses of the users. They continue to post offerings to keep you connected to their family. They will also alert you if the membership has not been renewed. When is the time to recharge as they have your contact information stored. Promotions and discount coupons are delivered to this email. Freecharge has also formed partnerships with several banks, which give discounts for utilizing their products.

They earn money from two sources.

1. Service Providers – Freecharge profits similarly as the local shop gets some commission from telecom operators by offering recharge services for the company. Still, since it serves a far more extensive consumer base, its revenues are correspondingly higher. There are around 10 million users on the platform, so their revenue is comparatively high and the most significant source of income for the company.

2. Coupons from Various Companies – This choice may appear counterintuitive at first, but it becomes apparent after you grasp the business aspect. Companies pay Freecharge to have their discounts shown on the portal, which you may access for free and for a nominal fee. Now the question must be why corporations would enable individuals to buy their items using coupons. Still, the entire couponing process is a marketing technique used by a company to increase sales.

Freecharge- Marketing Strategy

Freecharge has a long list of lucrative and fantastic items to its credit, and it has run several promotional campaigns to establish itself as a household brand. Its business approach is based on creative concepts. In India, television is a popular advertising medium with a large audience. Freecharge utilized this electronic media to begin its nationwide marketing. Coupons have been a critical difference for Freecharge since it offers unique alternatives that aren’t available elsewhere.

Because its clients are its brand ambassadors, the firm also depends heavily on word-of-mouth advertising. Freecharge has used social media platforms like YouTube as an advertising tool to attract internet users and loyal clients.

Conclusion

There you go! Now you know all about the business model of Freecharge. It is indeed one of the successful startups of India who had acquired the largest M&A deal in India’s startup ecosystem. From the very beginning, Freecharge knew whom they were going to target. The millennials and the youth are the influential markets for the company because these are the people who spend half of the time on the phone. That’s why it became so much popular in a short period.

The Axis bank acquisition of Freecharge is hoped to be best for both companies.

FAQs

Who acquired Freecharge?

Axis bank has acquired Freecharge.

Is Freecharge Indian?

Yes, Freecharge is digital payment app in India, with headquarters in Mumbai.

How did Freecharge make money?

They earn money from two sources :
- Commission from service providers.
- Couponing process
Who are the direct competitors of Freecharge?
- Paytm
- MobiKwik
- PhonePe
July 1, 2021

Create Videos Within Minutes with InVideo

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization InVideo.

Videos are one of the most effective ways to convey thoughts, ideas and concepts and is fast gaining popularity among the netizens. According to YouTube reports, mobile video consumption increases 100% year after year. Facebook generates 8 billion video views on average per day, while 53% of customers engage with a brand after watching a video on social media.

However, to take advantage of this growing popularity of videos, one must concentrate on creating effective and creative videos, which is not a simple task for everyone. But now with ‘InVideo’ making great videos is indeed becoming everybody’s cup of tea. InVideo is a web based software that helps you create fantastic videos, no matter whether you are an expert or an amateur in video making.

InVideo – Company Highlights

Startup Name	InVideo
Headquarter	Mumbai
Sector	Video Creation
Co- founders	Sanket Shah, Pankit Chedda and Harsh Vakharia
Founded	2017
Parent Organization	Abstrakt Video Private Limited
Website	InVideo

About InVideo and How it Works
Founders of InVideo and Team
How was InVideo Started
InVideo – Name, Tagline and Logo
InVideo – Business Model and Revenue Model
InVideo – User Acquisition
InVideo – Funding & Investors
InVideo – Advisors and Mentors
InVideo – Future Plans

About InVideo and How it Works

InVideo is a software on the web that provides seamless creative video creation services. It helps marketers, entrepreneurs, agencies, other small businesses to create professional-looking videos with ease. InVideo works with an intention to make video creation an effortless and friction less process.

While there are video making software, which are either too simple that creates videos which is no better than PowerPoint presentations, there are some other software that are too complex to be used by a non-expert. InVideo’s USP is that it is a synthesis of both simple and complex video creation softwares available, thereby, having the best of both in one place.

Founders of InVideo and Team

Engineering graduates Sanket Shah, Pankit Chedda and Harsh Vakharia Co-founded InVideo.

Invideo Founders — **Sanket Shah, Pankit Chedda and Harsh Vakharia**

Prior to InVideo, the trio founded ‘Massblurb‘, an online automated platform, helping restaurants manage their end to end online presence. After ‘Massblurb’ got acquired by ‘Mobikon’, they decided to come together to set up InVideo.

Currently, Sanket Shah is the CEO of InVideo. An Electrical and Electronic engineer by qualification, Sanket did Master of Science in Quantitative management from University of Michigan. Sanket worked with organizations like ‘Right Relevance,Inc’ and ‘Mobikon Asia Pte. Ltd’ in different positions. Apart from being a founding member of Massblurb, Sanket also founded ‘Visify Books’ – an interesting platform that presents main content of various books in video format. At InVideo, Sanket leads the Marketing and Sales department of the company.

Pankit Chedda is the CTO of InVideo. After completing his B.E from University of Mumbai, Pankit studied ‘Masters, Information Systems Management’ from Carnegie Mellon University. He worked in technical positions with organizations like ‘comScore, Inc’, ‘CouponDunia’ and ‘Mobikon Asia Pte. Ltd.’ At Invedio, Pankit manages core tool technology.

Harsh Vakharia, a chemical engineer by qualification, did M.S. in Industrial and Operations Engineering form University of Michigan. He worked in companies like A.T. Kearney and Mobikon Asia Pte. Ltd. Harsh looks after video technology and its details at InVideo.

InVideo currently has a team of 45 people.

How was InVideo Started

A personal problem faced by the founding team has led them to establish InVideo. Back in 2012, the founding team were working on creating 10-minute video summaries of non-fiction books. The process of video production was a major hurdle for them back then as it consumed a lot of time.

The team started looking for alternate solutions and realized that there are only two kinds of video creation tools:

That allows the user to create a very basic video (which is worse than a presentation).
Or one that will require a trained video editor to create a video.

While the simple video creating platforms have minimal scope for creativity and customization, the advanced versions are too complicated for a normal person to create high-quality, innovative videos. Identifying such a gap and personally experiencing the absence of a platform that caters to the needs of an ordinary individual who wants to create innovative high-end videos; Sanket Shah, Pankit Chedda, and Harsh Vakharia have put in collective effort to create the InVideo company.

When we researched, there were only simple video editors and complex ones; it did not work that way. So we did it! We ended up sitting beside a customer, observing them what we did – says Sanket, InVideo CEO

Before launching InVideo, the team studied the customers’ needs extensively through primary research. They reached out to large news channels and eventually validated the idea. Further, they built a basic engine to get a direct response from the customers before launching on a full scale.

InVideo – Name, Tagline and Logo

InVideo Logo

The company deals in Video making, and hence the name ‘InVideo’

If there’s any piece of content, our goal is to help people transform that content into great videos. So it’s like your content in the video. Thus the name ‘InVideo.’ – Sanket on explaining the thought behind the name.

InVideo – Business Model and Revenue Model

The InVideo business model operates as a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. It is basically a software distribution model in which InVideo hosts applications and provides them to the customers over the internet.

The InVideo revenue works on a freemium model, with paid plans starting at just $10 per month.

InVideo – User Acquisition and Growth

InVideo has over 800,000 users from more than 150 countries who have created videos in over 75 languages.

When we had started building the technology, we had found partners like Republic TV, Network18, etc., who helped us in understanding what we should build.

As InVideo was been built taking input from the customers, the company has managed to emerge strong and successful. With strategic planning, the team was able to build a market fit product, and from thereon, the mouth referrals have helped the company to get popular.

So we built this company with our customers. And so it’s so successful. We went ahead and built the entire company with our customers.

Furthermore, InVideo has undertaken intense marketing campaigns and growth hacking. Besides, they also adopted numerous other strategies and techniques to popularize the platform.

InVideo takes great care of customer expectations and designs its products in sync with customer demand. The company also has a 24/7 customer support team that responds in minutes.

Adobe Creative Clouds revenue is 6.5 billion, and they are only targeting professional video editors. We think that our market size is at least 10x because we are targeting anyone who is desiring to create a great video – says Sanket about InVideo’s target market

Apart from this Launching LTDs has also helped them a lot in gaining new users.

InVideo – Funding and Investors

The InVideo Funding details are listed below:

Date	Stage	Amount	Investors
May 2018	Seed	Undisclosed	Haresh Chawla, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Ashish Tulsian (Posist), Nishcal Shetty (Crowdfire), Kunal Shah (Cred)
October 2019	Seed	Undisclosed	Sequoia Capital India’s early-stage accelerator programme Surge, Blume Ventures, Omidyar Network & Lightspeed Venture Partners
February 2020	Seed	$2.5 Million	Sequoia Capital India’s early-stage accelerator programme Surge, Anand Chandrasekaran & Gokul Rajaram
October 2020	Series A	$15 Million	Sequoia Capital India

InVideo – Advisors and Mentors

Haresh Chawla, who is also an investor in InVideo is mentoring the startup

InVideo – Future Plans

InVideo’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) has increased by almost five times, from 12 to 59 in just three months.

Over the long-term, InVideo envisions to create an ecosystem like Adobe, enabling every marketer, entrepreneurs, who desire to create a video, to be able to do that easily. Now, InVideo wants to expand from a web platform to a cross-device and cross-function space. They are aiming for 5 million users in the next two years. The team is also planning to create a platform that will help users in creating templates.

Our vision has been very simple, that actually we want to take over the world. When people think about video, they need to think about InVideo.

So, if you are on the lookout for making a video, do give InVideo a try!

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

Who are the InVideo Founders?

Sanket Shah, Pankit Chedda and Harsh Vakharia are the Co-founders of InVideo.

What is InVideo?

InVideo is a web based software that helps you create fantastic videos in a matter of minutes, no matter whether you are an expert or an amateur in video making.

Is InVideo free?

InVideo works on a freemium model so you can access InVideo for free but the customization options and the features you will be able to access are limited.

March 15, 2021

Tag: Kunal Shah

CRED Success Story: How It Made Credit Card Payments Effective and Rewarding

CRED Company Details

About CRED

CRED – Startup Story

CRED – Founder and Team

Kunal Shah

CRED – Tagline and Logo

CRED – Business Model

CRED – Revenue Model

CRED – Funding and Investors

CRED – Shareholding

CRED – Acquisitions

CRED – Growth and Revenue

CRED Financials

CRED Revenue Breakdown

CRED Profit/Loss

CRED Expenses Breakdown

EBITDA

Quick Summary: Comparative Insights (FY23 vs FY22)

CRED – Products and Features

CRED Mint

CRED Cash

Rent Pay

CRED Store

Tap to Pay Feature

BidBlast

CRED Flash

CRED Escapes

P2P Payments

RuPay Credit card-based payments

Fourth Edition of AWP program

CRED – Competitors

FAQs

What is CRED company?

Who is CRED founder and CRED CEO?

CRED started in which year?

Is CRED a fintech company?

Is CRED an Indian company?

How does CRED make money?

Is CRED profitable?

How much is CRED revenue?

What is CRED tagline?

Which is CRED parent company?

CRED Business Model | How Does CRED Make Money?

What is CRED?

Key Features and Services of CRED

User Impact and Market Presence

Understanding the CRED Business Model – How Does CRED work?

Three Pillars of the CRED Business Model

CRED Revenue Model – How CRED Makes Money?

Revenue from Business Listings

Transaction-Based Earnings

Interest and Commission from Financial Services

Diverse Financial Offerings

Strategic Revenue Sharing

Decoding the CRED Revenue Streams

Revenue Composition and Growth

Primary Revenue Sources

Operational Revenue Enhancement

Fee-Based Earnings

Interest Income and Financial Services

Strategic Financial Management

CRED’s Value Proposition to Users

Challenges and Opportunities

Competitive Scenario and Differentiation Challenges

Competition and Market Positioning

Future Prospects and Strategic Focus

End Note

FAQs

What does CRED do?

How does CRED make money?

What is the CRED membership process?

What issue does CRED aim to address?

How does the CRED app work?

Is CRED a profitable company?

What is the CRED revenue model?

What is CRED business model?

How CRED works?

From Vision to Victory: Kunal Shah’s Pioneering Path in Fintech Revolution